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A  DIARY  OF  THE 
RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION 


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A  DIARY  OF  THE 
RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION 


BY 


JAMES  L.  HOUGHTELING,  Jr. 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1918 


Copyright,  1918, 
Br  DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY.  Inc. 


9  4-1 


TO 
L.  D.  H. 

FOR  WHOM    THESE    CHRONICLES   WERE    KEPT 
BUT  WHO  IS  MENTIONED  IN  THEM  ONLY  ONCE 


95S3 


PREFACE 

This  story  of  the  Russian  Revolution  of 
March  1917  is  based  partly  on  the  actual  experi- 
ences of  an  eyewitness,  partly  on  facts  which 
stand  of  record  or  are  common  knowledge  in 
Petrograd  and  Moscow,  and  partly  on  hearsay 
and  rumour.  I  reahse  fully  that  information 
of  the  latter  class, — as,  for  instance,  the  unsup- 
ported testimony  of  persons  whom  I  have  only 
felt  at  liberty  to  designate  by  their  initials, — is  a 
weak  foundation  for  a  historical  structure.  But 
I  beg  leave  to  point  out  that  such  testimony  is 
in  no  place  used  as  foundation,  but  only  as  the 
ornamental  scroll-work  of  the  fagade.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  know  what  clever  and  well-informed 
Russians  were  saying  and  thinking  in  the  most 
crucial  epoch  of  their  country's  history.  The 
men  of  ability  who  so  quickly  adopted  this  al- 
most accidental  revolution  and  guided  it,  be- 
lieved the  situation  to  be  approximately  what 
these  stories  and  rumours  depict. 

I  have  included  a  few  happenings  which  may 
appear  to  some  to  be  too  personal  and  there- 


viii  Preface 

fore  unnecessary,  but  their  purpose  is  to  show 
the  conditions  of  life  in  a  war-ridden  country. 

To  those  Americans  in  Russia  who  may  be 
surprised  to  have  their  names  ' '  called  right  out 
in  meeting,"  without  dashes  or  other  subter- 
fuge, I  offer  apologies,  feeling  sure  that  these 
friends  will  accept  them.  The  experiences  are 
theirs  as  much  as  mine  and  my  highest  hope  is 
that  they  may  think  I  have  drawn  the  picture 
faithfully. 

I  owe  to  the  Hon.  David  R.  Francis,  Ameri- 
can Ambassador  to  Russia,  a  debt  of  gratitude 
which  I  gladly  acknowledge;  also  to  the  Hon. 
Maddin  Sununers,  American  Consul  at  Mos- 
cow ;  and  to  the  embassy  and  consulate  staffs. 

I  wish  to  offer  sincere  thanks,  in  this  place,  to 
Professor  Samuel  N.  Harper  of  the  University 
of  Chicago  for  the  ground-outline  he  has  given 
me  of  Russian  institutions,  politics  and  cus- 
toms, which  has  enabled  me  in  a  greater  meas- 
ure to  grasp  the  significance  of  what  I  saw  and 
heard. 

James  L.  Houghteling,  Jr. 

November  25,  1917. 


CONTENTS 


CBAPTEB 


PAGE 


I  Petrograd  in  War  Time    ....  1 

II     Rumblings .18 

III  The  Lull 39 

IV  The  Revolt 62 

V  The  News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolu- 
tion          84 

VI  The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old     .  107 

VII     Reconstruction 142 

VIII     Order  or  Chaos? 162 

IX  The  Turn  Toward  Order  ....  174 


LIST  OP  ILLUSTRATIONS 

**In  the  name  of  Liberty,  War  against  German- 
ism to  full  Victory."  Revolutionary  troops 
in  front  of  Engineers  Palace,  April  1,  1917 

Frontispiece 

FACINQ 
FAQE 

The  Central  District  of  Petrograd  ....  8 
The   Liteiny   Prospekt.     Revolutionary   troops 

with  banner  "Liberty,  War  and  Victory"  .  22 
The    District    Court,    a   Petrograd    Institution 

which  the  Revolutionists  burned  ...  44 
The  Liteiny  District,  the   Scene  of  the  First 

Revolt 64 

The  Barricade  at  the  Corner  of  the  Liteiny  and 

the  Sergievskaya.    Built  March  12,  Removed 

March  17,  1917 70 

**The  Crosses."  Political  Prison  after  its  Cap- 
ture   92 

Officers  Registering  in  the  Duma  Hall  and  being 

addressed  by  the  Deputy  Skobeleff  .       .       .     102 

A  Delegation  of  Sailors  in  the  Catherine  Hall, 

Duma  Palace 124 

Burning  the  Tsar's  Coat-of-Arms  in  front  of  the 

Anitchkoif  Palace 138 

A    Woman's    Suffrage    Demonstration    on   the 

Nevsky 166 

Cavalry  in  the  Petrograd  Parade  of  April  1st  .     176 

"Without  Victory  There  Is  No  Liberty"    .      .    188 


INTRODUCTION 

A  person  wlio  has  spent  even  a  few  months  in 
Russia  cannot  but  be  tremendously  impressed 
by  the  ardent  sentimental  love  which  all  classes 
of  people  show  for  their  broad-stretching 
fatherland.  Ties  of  family  and  of  friendship 
do  not  seem  to  bind  as  fast  as  do  the  bonds  of 
endless  enthusiasm  for  *'Holy  Russia." 

There  is  an  irresistible  appeal  in  its  undu- 
lating flatness  and  fertility,  in  its  dazzling  win- 
ter whiteness,  in  the  sense  that  for  thousands 
and  thousands  of  versts  there  stretches  always 
Russia,  easy-going,  kindly  Russia,  full  of  im- 
practical, religious,  likeable  people. 

This  enthusiastic  love  explains  the  great  phe- 
nomenon of  the  Russian  Revolution  of  this  year 
1917 :  the  entire  lack  of  selfish  ambitions. 

Through  good-nature  and  indifference,  the 
Russians  had  let  themselves  be  misgoverned 
for  a  hundred  years  after  all  other  great  peo- 
ples had  begun  to  reform  their  governments. 
A  clique  of  grand-dukes,  lordlings  and  politi- 
cians, up  to  the  minute  in  every  refinement  of 


xiv  Introduction 

robbery,  bribery  and  maladministration,  had 
fastened  itself  upon  the  public  treasury  and  the 
ministerial  payrolls,  taking  cynical  advantage 
of  the  confusing  and  obscuring  bureaucratic 
system  of  "chins"  or  graduated  civil  ranks. 
These  corrupt  obstructionists  had  succeeded  in 
dominating  every  Tsar  and  in  nullifying  every 
reform  and  concession  which  the  crusading  mi- 
nority had  been  able  to  win,  up  to  the  very  day 
of  the  Revolution. 

That  there  were  reforms  at  all  was  due  to 
certain  chivalrous  elements  of  the  population 
who  from  altruistic  motives  carried  on  a  stub- 
born war  against  the  old  system.  These  groups 
were  the  "intelligentsia,"  the  socialists  and  the 
terrorists, — subdivisions  frequently  overlap- 
ping. They  lived  lives  of  devotion  to  Russia 
and  to  their  own  plans  of  reform.  They  knew 
no  sordid  impulses  within  themselves  and  were 
revolted  by  the  crude  selfishness  of  the  bureau- 
cracy. 

They  won  two  great  victories :  first,  in  the  re- 
forms of  Alexander  II,  the  freeing  of  the  serfs, 
the  division  of  lands,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  Zemstvos ;  and  second,  in  the  institution  of 
the  Imperial  Duma  as  a  climax  of  the  revolution 
of  1905-1906.  During  the  rest  of  the  last  sixty 
years  they  watched  reaction  triumph  and  had 


Introduction  xv 

not  the  organised  backing  to  defeat  it,  nor  the 
ability  to  marshal  a  successful  revolution. 

The  Great  War  awakened  and  organised  the 
people.  The  corrupt  autocratic  system  was 
swamped  from  the  outset,  and  only  the  unselfish 
energies  of  the  alert  liberal  minority  saved  Rus- 
sia from  a  disgraceful  collapse.  The  Zemstvos 
— representative  assemblies  of  the  landed 
gentry  and  richer  peasants  in  each  of  the  "gov- 
ernments" into  which  Russia  is  divided — sud- 
denly threw  off  the  powerlessness  which  the  bu- 
reaucracy had  imposed  upon  them  and  through 
their  Union  became  the  vitalising  force  of  the 
war-ridden  country.  They  cared  for  the 
wounded  and  fed  and  clothed  all  the  armies  in 
the  field.  *  They  directed  and  strengthened  the 
peasant  co-operative  societies  and  thus  reached 
out  into  almost  every  village  of  the  fatherland. 

Capitalists  and  toilers  joined  hands  a  second 
time  in  the  War  Industry  Committee,  composed 
of  public-spirited  merchants,  manufacturers 
and  labor  leaders  from  all  parts  of  the  empire. 
They  took  over  bodily  the  production  and  pur- 
chase of  munitions  and  began  putting  Russia 
back  on  an  efficient  military  footing  after  the  ca- 
lamitous retreat  out  of  Poland. 

*  See  report  of  the  Eussian  Union  of  Zemstvos,  published  in 
January,  1916,  by  its  London  Committee,  Bank  Building,  Kings- 
way,  W.  C,  London. 


xvi  Introduction 

These  patriotic  organisations  were  wrapped 
up  in  winning  the  war  and  tried  to  work  with 
the  bureaucracy.  But  their  efficiency  and  popu- 
larity were  regarded  by  the  latter  with  suspi- 
cion and  fear.  The  contrast  was  not  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  old  system  and  the  people  were 
being  educated  to  expect  better  things,  which 
the  bureaucracy  had  neither  the  inclination  nor 
the  ability  to  supply.  Instead  they  did  two 
things.  They  hampered  patriotic  endeavour  in 
every  way  they  could;  and  they  tried  to  stop 
the  war.  The  interference  with  the  meetings 
of  the  Zemstvo  Union  and  the  arrest  of  the 
Labor  Members  of  the  War  Industry  Committee 
were  stupid  and  brutal  blows  at  the  success  of 
their  own  armies.  The  *' separate-peace"  mach- 
inations of  the  Tsar,  Sturmer,  Rasputin  and 
ProtopopofP  were  awkward  attempts  to  save  the 
old  system  from  collapse  by  sacrificing  the  Rus- 
sian people  and  their  allies.  The  patriots  sur- 
vived all  these  attacks,  and  the  reaction  against 
the  perpetrators  had  a  tremendous  momentum. 

It  is  hardly  fair  to  have  gone  so  far  in  re- 
viewing the  unselfish  patriotic  forces  in  the 
Russian  state  without  mentioning  the  turbulent 
minority  in  the  Duma, — hampered  almost  hope- 
lessly by  the  ever-impending  veto  of  the  Council 
of  Empire,  by  the  overruling  power  of  the  Tsar 


Introduction  xvii 

and  by  the  crushingly  limited  electoral  fran- 
chise of  its  own  body.  Of  the  parties  of  Oppo- 
sition, the  most  important  were  the  Consti- 
tutional Democrats,  the  Social  Democrats  and 
the  Laborites  or  Social  Revolutionaries.  There 
was  seldom  peace  or  agreement  among  these 
parties,  but  their  principal  aim  was  held  in  com- 
mon,— ^to  free  Russia  from  the  curse  of  the 
selfish  bureaucracy.  Membership  in  any  of 
them  was  an  antidote  to  ambition,  for  all  recog- 
nised that  their  leaders  stood  much  nearer  to 
the  famous  casemates  of  the  Peter-and-Paul 
Fortress  than  they  did  to  real  nation-mde 
power  and  influence.  Men  like  Alexander  Feo- 
dorovich  Kerensky  or  Pavel  Nikolaievich  Miliu- 
koif  spent  their  energies  freely  and  risked  life 
and  liberty  with  no  other  motive  than  a  true 
love  of  humanity  and  a  burning  passion  of  de- 
votion for  Russia. 

Suddenly  the  Revolution  of  March  12  came, 
and  Russia  found  all  her  most  devoted  children 
on  one  side.  Against  the  Imperial  Family,  the 
old  guard  of  the  bureaucracy,  and  the  police, 
were  lined  up  the  Zemstvo  nobility  and  gentry 
and  their  peasant  collaborators,  the  business 
people,  the  bourgeoisie,  the  vast  masses  of  the 
workingmen,  the  ablest  generals  in  the  field,  and 
the  entire  army  with  many  of  its  officers.    Even 


xviii  Introduction 

some  members  of  the  court  and  one  or  two  of 
tlie  Romanoffs  believed  a  revolution  unavoid- 
able and  favoured  it.  Selfishness,  corruption 
and  incompetence  clashed  for  a  moment  against 
the  awakened  demand  for  freedom,  justice  and 
humanity  and  then  were  bowled  over  and  swept 
away  before  the  advance  of  the  reborn  nation. 

The  methods  of  the  old  regime  were  accursed. 
The  selfishness  of  the  autocracy  had  its  reflex  in 
the  same  sort  of  exalted  patriotism  that  in- 
spired the  fathers  of  the  American  nation  in 
our  Revolution.  By  common  consent  the  best 
men  in  Russia  were  thrust  into  office,  regard- 
less of  political  differences,  to  form  the  great 
First  Ministry.  Not  until  the  return  of  the 
Siberians  and  the  exiles,  who  were  untouched 
by  the  exaltation  of  the  Revolution,  did  false 
ambition,  class  hatred,  treason  to  Russia  and 
greed  for  the  gold  of  the  enemy  become  promi- 
nent factors  of  the  situation.  The  Bolsheviki 
and  extremist  agitators  are  not  blood-children 
of  the  Russian  Revolution. 

The  century-long  work  of  liberation  was  con- 
summated in  five  days.  The  century-long  work 
of  building  up  the  structure  of  a  modern  sys- 
tem of  liberty,  restrained  and  accommodated 
to  the  welfare  of  an  ever-increasing  majority 
and  to  the  rights  of  all,  cannot  be  accomplished 


Introduction  xix 

so  quickly.  But  no  one  who  has  caught  the 
spirit  of  the  Revolution  can  doubt  that  the  up- 
building of  such  a  system  will  be  duly  finished, 
— despite  intervening  disturbances, — generous- 
ly, wisely  and  patriotically. 


A  DIARY  OF  THE 
RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION 


A  DIARY  OF  THE  RUSSIAN 
REVOLUTION 

CHAPTER  I 

PETROGBAD  IN  WAR  TIME 

January  18, 1917.  En  route  from  Stockholm 
to  Petrograd.  At  noon  we  reached  Haparanda 
and  the  Swedish  frontier.  Just  before,  we  were 
treated  to  a  most  beautiful  "sun-rise"  effect. 
The  sun  had  been  up  for  two  hours  but  hung 
low  in  the  south,  about  twenty  degrees  above 
the  horizon.  Long  low  snow-islands  of  clouds 
lined  the  southern  heavens ;  the  sun,  instead  of 
rising  across  these  cloud-bars  as  a  normal  ris- 
ing sun  would,  slid  sideward  between  them. 
The  colors  were  magnificent,  the  whole  effect 
very  thrilling. 

We  were  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  Arctic 
Circle  and  it  was  moderately  cold,  about  twenty 
below  zero,  Fahrenheit. 

At  Haparanda  we  passed  laboriously  through 
the  Swedish  customs.    The  laws  about  taking 

1 


2      A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

food,  shoes,  etc.,  out  of  the  country  are  as  stren- 
uous as  those  governing  imports. 

After  a  frigid  drive  across  the  river  to  an 
island,  we  were  admitted  by  a  sort  of  toll-gate 
to  the  Russian  Empire.  Beyond  the  gate  were 
a  few  rough  wooden  houses,  including  custom- 
house, warehouses,  and  barracks ;  also  an  enclo- 
sure with  a  high  paling  that  might  have  been 
a  place  of  detention.  The  Swedish  sleigh-driver 
left  us  and  our  hand-luggage  on  the  hard-packed 
snow  of  the  little  square  and  a  Russian  soldier 
with  a  bashlik  tied  tightly  around  his  head  mo- 
tioned us  into  the  custom-house.  Here  we  were 
treated  with  great  courtesy  by  an  officer  who 
spoke  English.  The  examination  was  far  from 
rigorous  but  every  one  was  obliged  to  answer 
an  elaborate  questionnaire.  Then  we  were  kept 
shut  up  for  an  hour  or  more  in  a  packed  wait- 
ing-room ;  we  talked  with  a  Roumanian  dressed 
in  the  uniform  of  a  captain  of  the  French  army, 
who  was  hastening  home  to  help  stop  the  Rou- 
manian retreat,  and  with  one  or  two  Russian 
officers.  Most  of  the  travellers  crowded  into  a 
dirty  little  restaurant  and  drank  tea  out  of 
glasses. 

It  was  in  this  custom-house  a  short  time  ago 
that  a  courier,  having  a  perfectly  correct  pass- 
port and  laissez  passer  from  the  Russian  lega- 


Petrosrrad  in  War  Time 


'to 


tion  in  Stockholm,  was  detained.  Everything 
seemed  normal  but  the  commandant,  who  has 
been  here  a  long  time  and  has  developed  a  great 
nose  f©r  spies,  was  suspicious.  Despite  threats 
from  the  courier  that  it  meant  ruin  to  the  com- 
mandant's military  career,  the  latter  ordered 
the  pouches  opened,  and  found  therein  several 
thousand  pasteboard  matchboxes,  each  contain- 
ing a  couple  of  layers  of  matches  and  under 
them,  tightly-folded  pamplilets  of  a  revolution- 
ary pro-German  nature  addressed  to  the  peas- 
ants of  Russia.  The  courier  was,  naturally, 
taken  out  and  shot.  What  a  futile  errand  to 
pay  for  with  a  man 's  life ! 

Another  cold  drive  across  the  river  toward 
the  hilly  Finland  shore.  The  crispness  of  the 
air  and  the  slanting  sunlight  on  the  snow  were 
most  exhilarating.  The  wooded  hills,  the  gilded 
bulb-domes  of  the  Russian  church  in  the  village 
of  Torneo  and  the  long  caravans  of  freight 
sledges  tugging  across  snow-covered  ice  made 
an  unforgettable  picture.  At  the  Torneo  sta- 
tion we  went  through  the  usual  confused  check- 
ing of  baggage  and  just  as  darkness  fell  Bailey 
and  I  found  ourselves  ensconced  in  a  cramped 
compartment  on  the  train  of  the  Finnish  Na- 
tional R.  R.  We  started  south  only  two  hours 
late. 


4      A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

Friday,  January  19.  We  travelled  all  day 
through  Finland.  In  neatness,  whiteness  and 
woodiness  it  is  much  like  Sweden  but  less 
rugged.  We  have  not  seen  any  really  good 
stands  of  timber,  but  I  suppose  this  is  natural 
along  the  right-of-way  of  a  trunk-line  railway. 

We  passed  the  Finnish-Russian  Customs  with 
the  usual  formalities  at  Bieloostroff,  and 
reached  Petrograd  at  midnight.  Armour,  John- 
son and  a  courier  met  us  at  the  Finland  Station. 
Outside,  we  found  that  the  automobile  they  had 
hired  had,  in  characteristic  Russian  fashion, 
gotten  tired  and  gone  home ;  so  we  had  the  long 
cold  drive  to  the  hotel  in  a  sleigh.  I  drew  two 
small  rooms,  a  tiny  bedroom  and  a  fair-sized 
sitting-room.  Dark  walls,  torn  paper,  drab  fur- 
niture !  The  halls  of  this  hotel  smell  like  a  third- 
class  boarding  house  in  Chicago. 

Saturday,  January  20.  I  went  at  11:30  to  call 
at  our  Embassy.  The  drive  by  tffe  Winter'  Pal-, 
ace,  the  Hermitage,  the  Quays,  the  Marsovo 
Pole,  the  Summer  Garden  and  the  Liteiny  made 
a  great  impression.  But  what  an  untidy  town ! 
The  buildings  are  of  such  a  discouraged  color; 
perhaps  in  the  sunlight  they  will  look  better  but 
to-day  is  overcast.  The  unattractive  war-loan 
posters  are  stuck  about  badly  over  everything, 
be  it  government  office  building  or  palace ;  and 


Petrograd  in  War  Time  5 

firewood  is  piled  in  full  view  all  over  town.  The 
Marsovo  Pole  (Field  of  Mars)  looks  like  a 
wood-yard. 

Soldiers  are  drilling  everywhere,  on  the  Pal- 
ace Square,  on  the  Quays,  in  the  side-streets.  In 
the  middle  of  the  Marsovo  Pole,  surrounded  by 
marching  infantry,  skirmishing  machine-gun 
squads,  and  overshadowing  fire-woods,  two  sec- 
tions of  field  artillery  are  doing  mounted  drill, 
— a  welcome  sight  to  an  expatriated  artillery- 
man. I  was  tempted  to  abandon  my  ivoshchik 
and  spend  my  morning  "reviewing"  them. 

The  Embassy  stands  on  a  fine  broad  street, 
the  Fourstadskaya,  but  is  a  disappointing  two- 
story  affair  without  dignity  of  facade,  squeezed 
into  the  middle  of  a  block  with  a  big  apartment 
building  on  one  side  and  another  modest  resi- 
dence on  the  other.  Above  its  low  roof  an 
American  fla^  hung  at  half-mast  (for  Admiral 
Dewey). 

The  Embassy  staff  were  most  cordial.  I  had 
a  session,  including  luncheon,  with  the  Ambas- 
sador and  told  him  the  reasons  of  my  coming. 
He  was  very  definite  in  his  suggestions,  and 
greatly  impressed  me  by  his  grasp  of  the  Rus- 
sian situation  and  by  the  largeness  of  his  views. 

In  the  evening  I  dined  at  the  hotel  and  was 
joined  by .    I  went  afterwards  to  his  pala- 


6      A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

tial  suite  for  a  wee  drappie;  we  foreigners 

aren't  as  dry  as  the  rest  of  Russia.    told 

me  that  an  official  in  the  Foreign  Office  had  in- 
formed him  that  Russia  was  not  worrying  about 
the  Roumanian  situation;  she  has  been  warned 
by  her  allies  that  they  intend  to  make  a  big  push 
in  the  spring  and  end  the  war  next  fall,  so  she 
is  bending  every  effort  to  get  her  house  in  or- 
der preparatory  to  doing  her  share.  I  don't 
know  what  he  means  by  "getting  her  house  in 
order." 

Sunday,  January  21.  Went  to  34  Fourstad- 
skaya  at  11  with  Bailey;  there  we  picked  up 
Rumchevich  the  door-man  to  act  as  interpreter 
and  started  out  to  look  for  apartments.  A 
handy  interpreter!  He  speaks  only  Russian 
and  German,  and  in  this  town  one  dare  not 
speak  the  latter  above  a  whisper.  The  Kaiser 
once  said  that  German  is  a  tongue  which  must 
be  spoken  loud  from  the  chest,  and  I  believe 
him;  at  least  my  attempts  to  whisper  it  were 
not  very  successful.  We  saw  only  one  apart- 
ment and  that  was  impossible.  The  bedroom 
and  study  were  nice,  but  they  were  separated 
by  a  salon  crammed  full  of  heavy,  inartistic 
Russian  furniture,  and  the  man  who  owned  the 
apartment  would  only  rent  the  three  rooms  to- 
gether for  400  roubles  a  month. 


Petrograd  in  War  Time  7 

I  thought  Graham  Taylor  might  arrive  to- 
day, so  after  leaving  Bailey  at  the  hotel  I  walked 
the  length  of  the  Nevsky  to  the  Nikolaieff  sta- 
tion. What  a  conglomeration  of  a  street  the 
Nevsky  is !  The  curved  colonnades  of  the  Ka- 
zan Cathedral  are  stunning  but  in  the  next  block 
one  comes  face  to  face  with  the  atrocious  city- 
hall.  The  open  square  at  the  Anitchkoff  and 
that  palace  itself  are  worthy  of  Paris,  but  across 
the  street  is  a  hodge-podge  of  straggly  forlorn 
business  buildings,  much  disfigured  by  ugly 
signs.  It  is  not  a  creditable  main  street  for  the 
capital  of  180,000,000  souls. 

And  why  doesn  't  any  one  speak  anything  be- 
side Russian?  At  the  Nikolaieff  there  was  no 
one  to  be  found  to  tell  me  about  trains  from 
Moscow  and  I  wandered  about  mournfully  like 
a  lost  soul.  Luckily  Graham  didn't  come,  for  if 
he  had,  I  should  probably  have  missed  him. 

Monday,  January  22.  To  the  office  about  ten. 
It's  hard  to  get  started  in  the  morning  when 
one  has  to  labor  with  the  hotel  servants  to 
make  them  understand  one's  simplest  wants  and 
then  to  wait  interminably  for  service.  The  ho- 
tels are  awfully  short  of  even  moujik  "help," 
and  if  I  get  an  answer  to  my  bell  in  less  than  a 
half -hour,  I'm  proud  of  myself  all  day. 

At  noon  Norman  Armour  of  our  Embassy 


8      A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Eevolution 

took  some  of  us  newly-arrived  Americans  over 
to  look  at  the  Demidoff  house  on  the  Sergiev- 
skaya.  The  United  States  has  an  option  on  it, 
furnished,  for  an  Embassy.  It  has  seventy 
rooms  including  state  reception-rooms,  banquet- 
rooms,  a  ballroom,  a  stunning  conservatory 
where  the  Demidoffs  are  said  to  have  gypsy  dan- 
cers perform  when  they  give  a  ball,  two  beau- 
tiful suites  of  apartments  for  the  ambassador 
and  the  counsellor,  a  lot  of  smaller  suites  which 
could  be  used  for  secretaries,  and  all  sorts  of 
rooms  for  a  chancery. 

We  lunched  with  Armour  at  his  apartment  on 
the  Liteiny,  Sands  and  Miles  being  the  other 
guests.  The  difficulties  of  living  comfortably 
were  discussed  at  length ;  all  present  except  Ar- 
mour are  hunting  better  quarters  and  are  hav- 
ing no  luck  at  all. 

Tuesday,  January  23.  At  four  this  afternoon 
I  went  exploring.  I  had  heard  of  an  apart- 
ment over  on  the  Bolshoy  Prospekt  belonging 
to  an  erstwhile  secretary  of  the  erstwhile  Ger- 
man Embassy;  but  there  are  two  Bolshoy  Pros- 
pekts,  widely  separated  on  different  islands, 
one  on  the  Kammeny  Ostroff  and  the  other  on 
the  Vassili  Ostroff,  and  my  informant  failed  to 
tell  me  on  which  one  to  look  for  this  apartment 
building.    I  started  along  the  Quays  and  across 


Petrograd  in  War  Time  9 

the  Troitsky  Bridge,  pausing  a  few  moments  to 
study  the  old  Fortress  of  Peter  and  Paul  (the 
needle-pointed  spire  of  its  church  is  the  fairest 
thing  in  Petrograd) ;  then  around  by  the  Peo- 
ple's House  of  Nikolas  II,  a  big  recreation 
building,  and  into  a  labyrinth  of  back  streets. 
Soon  I  reached  the  Bolshoy  Prospekt  and  its 
shoddiness  convinced  me  that  the  other  one 
must  be  that  for  which  I  was  looking,  for  not 
even  a  German  secretary  would  live  on  this 
Second-Avenue-like  thoroughfare.  I  felt  too 
weak  on  Russian  for  either  sleigh  or  street-cars, 
so  I  trudged  on  and  presently  came  out  of  the 
congested  district  and  crossed  the  Little  Neva 
to  the  scholastic  shores  of  the  Vassili  Ostroff. 
I  had  been  two  hours  on  foot  and  decided  it  was 
too  late  for  any  more  flat-hunting.  Therefore  I 
skirted  the  Bourse  and  the  Museums  to  the 
Bourse  Bridge,  thence  to  the  Admiralty  Quay, 
and  across  the  Palace  Square  to  the  Morskaya 
and  home.  It  was  my  first  tour  of  the  city, 
which  after  all  has  many  points  of  interest  and 
beauty. 

Bailey  and  I  dined  together  and  went  to  a 
movie.  I  can  already  read  a  few  words  of  the 
legends  between  the  pictures. 

Wednesday,  January/  24.  I  lunched  with  the 
Wrights.    told  me  that   a  revolution  is 


10    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

much  talked  about  in  private  and  that  some  peo- 
ple here  think  it  may  come  soon. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  the  Imperial  Bp11< 
at  the  Marinsky  Theatre.  The  ballet  was  '*Pax- 
ita,"  a  Spanish  affair,  not  one  of  the  best,  but 
very  well  done,  of  course.  Between  the  acts  we 
admired  the  sentinels  at  the  door  of  the  Impe- 
rial Box.  They  faced  each  other  and  stood  like 
statues,  a  most  blase  smirk  on  their  nubbly  Rus- 
sian countenances.  At  fixed  intervals  the 
flicker  of  an  eyelid  of  the  senior  would  set  them 
off  on  a  stiff  marionettish  manual-of-arms  drill 
lasting  about  three  minutes.  Heads  were 
snapped  to  right  and  left,  rifles  ported,  pre- 
sented, shouldered,  all  in  staccato  time  but  with 
an  air  of  utmost  boredom.  The  Imperial  Box 
was  occupied  by  officers  of  the  suite  of  the 
Crown-Prince  of  Roumania ;  who  rumor  says  is 
up  here  courting,  trying  to  get  Tatiana, — ^but 
Olga  must  go  first. 

Thursday,  January  25.  I  have  found  a  solu- 
tion for  the  perplexing  problem  of  talking  to 
the  servants  in  this  hotel.  The  chambermaid 
is  an  amusing  old  dame  from  the  Baltic  Prov- 
inces, as  quick  as  a  steel  trap,  and  talks  Ger- 
man fluently.  By  much  gesticulation  and  point- 
ing I  can  make  her  understand  me  in  that 
tongue  and  she  tells  me  the  Russian  words  which 


Petrograd  in  War  Time  11 

I  immediately  hunt  up  in  my  dictionary,  to 
make  sure  of  their  spelling.  Unfortunately 
t^2te  lives  next  to  me,  separated  only  by  a  thin 
door,  a  French  officer,  and  he  has  taken  to  bat- 
ting on  the  door  every  time  he  hears  us  ' '  straf- 
ing" the  hated  language.  If  he  realised  how  I 
was  murdering  the  Kaiser's  German,  he'd  rec- 
ommend me  for  a  St.  Vladimir  Cross  at  the 
very  least. 

After  dinner  to-night,  old  Mr.  P of  Bos- 
ton dropped  in  to  borrow  some  books.  We 
chatted  and  our  talk  soon  turned  to  Rasputin,  a 
never-failing  topic  these  days.  He  remarked 
with  true  New  England  disgust  that  Rasputin 
was  the  most  immoral  man  in  Russia;  and  a 
man  of  tremendous  magnetic  and  physical  pow- 
ers. He  has  heard  that  the  reason  for  the  mur- 
der was  not  politics  but  involved  an  intimacy 
between  the  self-styled  monk  and  the  wife  of 
one  of  the  high  persons  implicated.  At  any 
rate,  Rasputin  was  invited  to  94  Moika,  Prince 
Yussupoff 's  house,  was  met  there  by  his  host, 
with  the  Grand  Duke  Dmitri  Pavlovich,  Purish- 
kevich,  and  others,  and  after  some  preliminaries 
was  ordered  to  commit  suicide.  When  he  re- 
fused, one  of  them,  reputedly  Purishkevich,  took 
the  pistol  and  shot  him.  His  body  was  taken 
across  the  Islands  and  dropped  off  one  of  the 


12    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

far  bridges  through  a  hole  in  the  ice.  The  rope 
and  weight  slipped  off,  so  that  the  corpse 
floated  and  was  found. 

Armour  tells  me  that  a  few  days  afterwards 
he  drove  across  the  same  bridge  and  that  his 
driver  pointed  out  the  hole,  crossed  himself  and 
said,  *'It  has  not  frozen;  he  was  a  saint!" 

Friday,  January  26.     A  quiet  day  until  11 

p.  M.     At  that  hour  I  went  to  Capt.  M 's 

where  I  found  a  gay  supper  party  in  progress. 
The  guests  included  the  American  Ambassador 
and  two  of  his  staff,  a  Russian  general  and  his 
wife,  an  American  banker,  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ter, a  cavalry  captain  stunning  in  a  deep-red 
Caucasian  uniform,  an  American  special  corre- 
spondent and  her  husband,  and  a  British  tor- 
pedo expert.    After  supper  we  danced  until  3 :00 

A.  M. 

Saturday,  January  27.  On  my  way  to  work 
this  morning  I  passed  the  church  of  St.  Pante- 
leimon  the  Martyr  just  as  they  began  to  ring 
its  chimes.  I  never  heard  better  rag-time.  The 
big  bells  boomed,  while  the  little  ones  tinkled  a 
syncopated  anthem  which  showed  a  truly  ' '  Rag- 
time Temple  Bells"  spirit  in  the  heart  of  the 
bell-ringer. 

After  work,  I  walked  along  the  Moika  Canal 
almost  to  the  Marinsky  Theatre  to  see  the  house 


Petrograd  in  War  Time  13 

where  Rasputin  was  killed.  It  is  new,  square 
and  ugly. 

I  dined  with  our  Embassy  ^s  Commercial 
Attache.  After  dinner  he  and  I  went  out  to  a 
reception  at  the  apartment  of  Harold  Williams, 
author  of  ' '  Russia  of  the  Russians. ' '  Mrs.  Wil- 
liams is  a  very  clever  Russian  woman  and  their 
apartment  is  a  great  rendezvous  for  liberals  of 
all  sorts.  Mr.  Williams  has  lived  in  this  coun- 
try for  a  dozen  years  and  represents  the  Lon- 
don Chronicle. 

There  was  a  great  crowd  there,  mostly  speak- 
ing Russian.  I  talked  with  Mr.  Williams,  with 
Ransom  of  the  London  Daily  News,  and  with 
Capt.  Grenfell,  the  British  Naval  Attache.  I 
met  Mr.  Guchkoff,  Mr.  Shidlovsky,  and  several 
other  Duma  Members.  At  supper  I  was  placed 
between  Mr.  Williams  and  a  Mme.  Protopopoff , 
who  assured  me  hastily  that  she  was  no  relation 
to  the  Home  Minister.  She  spoke  French  and 
we  talked  about  Tolstoi  and  things  Russian, 
with  the  constant  feeling  on  my  part  that  she 
would  prefer  to  listen  to  the  animated  Russian 
conversation  going  on  around  us.  Huntington 
had  a  headache  and  left  early ;  I  departed  about 
midnight,  although  the  party  was  still  in  full 
swing.    I  understand  that  shortly  afterwards 


14    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

Prof.  Miliukoff  arrived  and  the  conversation  be- 
came distinctly  political. 

Sunday,  January  28.  Graham  Taylor  dropped 
in  from  Moscow  this  morning.  He  could  not 
get  a  room  at  any  hotel,  so  I  am  having  an  ex- 
tra bed  wedged  into  my  palatial  suite. 

There  are  said  to  be  a  million  strangers, 
mostly  refugees  from  Poland  and  Lithuania,  in 
Petrograd  at  present.  Every  hotel  is  jammed 
and  no  house  or  apartment  for  rent  stays  on 
the  market  for  twenty-four  hours.  Guests  sleep 
in  the  private  dining-rooms  and  the  corridors 
of  the  hotels,  and  one  can  never  get  a  bath  be- 
fore nine  a.  m.  or  after  nine  p.  m.  because  some 
unfortunate  is  bedded  down  in  every  bath-room. 
I  verified  this  yesterday,  for  when  at  eight  in 
the  morning  I  sceptically  entered  the  near-by 
bath-room,  clad  in  bathrobe,  slippers  and  towel, 
I  tripped  over  a  poor  wretch  sleeping  on  a  mat- 
tress on  the  floor. 

This  morning  we  went  with  one  of  the  Amer- 
ican secretaries  to  inspect  the  German  Embassy. 
I  have  noticed  the  building  before  and  consider 
it  an  insult  to  St.  Isaac's  Cathedral  opposite. 
It  is  the  worst  type  of  new  German  taste,  built 
of  iron-grey  stone  with  frowning  square  pillars 
from  sidewalk  to  cornice.  The  interior  must 
have  been  dreadful  in  its  first  glory, — gilt  and 


Petrograd  in  War  Time  15 

black  and  *'kaiserliche  und  konigliche"  aggres- 
sive. Now  it  is  all  most  picturesquely  wrecked, 
a  complete  wholehearted  Russian  job.  Furni- 
ture and  fixtures  are  torn  to  pieces,  wall  paper 
scarred,  door-handles  and  panels  broken,  ink 
spattered  everywhere.  Portraits,  tapestries 
and  carpets  are  ripped  and  torn.  As  art  critics 
the  Russians  are  soul-satisfying.  The  great  en- 
trance-hall and  the  corridors  are  piled  high  with 
broken  furniture  and  statuary.  Even  the  bath- 
tubs,— of  which  we  could  find  only  three  in  that 
great  building, — are  broken  or  bent.  The  mas- 
sive iron  equestrian  figures  on  the  roof  were 
torn  down  and  thrown  into  the  Moika  Canal, 
where  they  floated,  as  they  were  only  tin.  Their 
salvaged  remains  still  lie  in  the  courtyard.  All 
this  took  place  a  few  weeks  after  war  was  de- 
clared. It  is  said  that  police  agents  directed  the 
mob. 

We  supped  at  Eugene  Prince 's  on  the  Peters- 
burg side.  His  sister,  who  is  a  Red  Cross  nurse 
and  was  recently  married  to  Capt.  Afanasieff  of 
the  Russian  Army,  entertained  us  with  stories 
of  the  front  and  showed  us  her  war  photo- 
graphs, many  of  which  were  extraordinary. 
Some  of  the  best  were  of  the  Russian  priests 
conducting  services  on  the  battle  line.  Mme. 
Afanasieff 's  stories  and  pictures  showed  people 


16    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

living  a  happy  normal  outdoor  life  in  spite  of 
trenches,  aeroplane  shelters  and  heavy  ord- 
nance. Only  a  picture  or  two  of  dead  soldiers 
torn  by  shrapnel  reminded  us  of  the  ghastly 
business  in  which  these  smiling  cheery  officers 
and  nurses  were  engaged. 

Tuesday,  January  30.  There  are  still  plenty 
of  Russian  soldiers,  judging  from  what  one  sees 
here.  They  are  a  husky,  healthy  lot,  and  from 
my  views  of  the  recruits  I  do  not  think  the  qual- 
ity of  the  material  is  deteriorating.  At  drill 
they  are  like  children.  If  a  recruit  is  abnor- 
mally awkward,  the  rest  of  his  squad  will  stop 
work  entirely  and  roar  with  laughter  at  his  ef- 
forts. A  friend  tells  me  that  he  saw  a  recruit 
squad  with  one  particularly  clumsy  member; 
the  officer,  when  he  had  corrected  him  a  dozen 
times,  lost  patience  and  stepping  silently  leapt 
upon  him,  striking  with  both  feet  in  the  small 
of  his  back  and  knocking  him  onto  his  face. 
The  recruit  rose  sheepishly  and  immediately 
began  getting  the  idea  better. 

There  are  innumerable  men  of  military  age 
driving  truck-sledges,  cleaning  the  streets  and 
doing  all  sorts  of  other  work.  It  will  take  many 
years  to  exhaust  Russia's  man-power. 

I  don't  gather  that  the  armies  lost  many  men 
in  Roumania.    The  Russians  have  fought  one 


Petrograd  in  War  Time  17 

of  those  punishing  man-saving  rear-guard  cam- 
paigns at  which  they  are  so  superior.  They 
seem  to  loathe  the  Roumanians  and  tell  all  sorts 
of  slurring  stories  about  them.  It  is  said  that 
the  complete  wrecking  of  the  Roumanian  oil 
fields,  done  so  well  that  Germany  will  not  get  a 
cupful  of  oil  for  several  years,  was  borne  with 
great  stoicism  in  this  country. 


CHAPTER  II 


RUMBLINGS 


Wednesday,  Jcmuary  31.    There  is  no  doubt 

that  a  revolution  is  coming.    G says  that  in 

the  provinces  it  is  regarded  as  certain,  and  that 
people  think  it  will  be  very  bloody. 

The  Tsar's  actions  alone  are  enough  to  pro- 
voke a  revolt.  Last  fall  he  put  into  office  the 
pro-German  Stiirmer.  The  latter  immediately 
attacked  the  Zemstvo  Union  as  a  detriment  to 
the  war,  but  his  own  Ministers  of  War  and  Ma- 
rine, acting  upon  representations  from  Generals 
Alexeieff,  Ruzsky,  and  Brusiloff,  reported  that 
they  could  not  get  along  without  the  Union. 
This  fiasco  and  Miliukoff's  denunciation  of 
Stiirmer  in  the  Duma,  drove  him  from  office, 
the  first  time  popular  opinion  has  been  able  to 
exert  such  strength.  The  Tsar  is  said  to  have 
asked  the  recall  of  Sir  George  Buchanan,  the 
British  Ambassador,  as  an  accomplice  of  Miliu- 
koif ,  but  to  have  met  with  a  prompt  refusal  from 
Great  Britain.  Then  Trepotf  went  in  as  a  lib- 
eral, but  the  Tsar  saddled  him  with  Protopo- 

18 


Rumblings  19 

poff,  the  worst  reactionary  of  all,  as  Home  Min- 
ister controlling  the  police  and  the  press. 
While  the  Premier  was  expostulating  and  Niko- 
las vacillating,  Rasputin  was  killed  and  the  Tsar 
immediately  grew  stubborn,  confirmed  Proto- 
popoff  and  forced  Trepoff  out.  Now  we  have 
a  nice  old  reactionary  philanthropist  as  nominal 
head  of  the  ministry,  with  Protopopoff  as  the 
real  government.  The  Duma  has  been  ad- 
journed and  while  it  is  scheduled  to  assemble 
on  February  27th,  the  wise  ones  say  it  will 
never  meet.  Meanwhile  the  throne  has  fewer 
adherents  every  day. 

Thursday,  February  1.  We  have  just  heard 
the  unbelievable  news  of  Germany's  submarine- 
zone  proclamation.  If  the  report  is  true,  it  shows 
that  Germany  is  on  her  last  legs.  It  surely 
means  that  we  enter  the  war. 

Friday,  February  2.  No  official  news.  The 
papers  give  the  boundaries  of  the  submarine 
zone.  Will  the  Scandinavian  steamers  sail  with 
our  precious  mail? 

Graham  and  I  went  after  lunch  to  the  Alex- 
ander III  Museum  to  see  the  pictures  by  Rus- 
sian artists.  It  is  a  fine  collection,  but  I  found 
the  much-talked-of  Vereshchagins  rather  a  dis- 
appointment. The  landscapes  and  a  few  of  the 
Cossack  pictures  pleased  me  most.    It  is  inter- 


20    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

esting  to  contrast  these  superb  landscapes  with 
the  totally  unreal  paintings  of  the  sea ;  the  Rus- 
sians don't  seem  to  understand  the  latter  ele- 
ment. 

We  dined  at  Donan's,  and  I  went  home  to 
work. 

Saturday,  February  3.  When  I  came  from 
work  this  afternoon  and  entered  the  Palace 
Square  from  the  Millionaya,  I  saw  a  picture 
only  equalled  by  the  Champs-Elysees  and  the 
Arc  de  Triomphe  on  a  May  afternoon.  The  sun 
was  setting  behind  the  Admiralty  Gardens,  and 
the  golden  needle  of  the  Admiralty  Spire  and 
the  faultless  dome  of  St.  Isaac's  stood  out 
against  a  sky  supremely  rosy  and  beautiful.  The 
square  was  darkening  fast,  and  the  Alexander 
Column,  the  grim  old  Winter  Palace,  and  the 
crescent  of  stately  government  buildings  with 
the  chariot-topped  Morskaya  Arch  to  break 
their  mass,  were  all  toned  down  to  a  shadowy 
softness.  I  stood  and  stood,  wishing  I  were 
Joshua  to  stop  the  sun  and  prolong  the  delight. 

Sunday,  February  4.  Graham  Taylor  left  this 
noon.    His  visit  has  been  a  great  treat. 

I  went  to  the  Embassy  after  lunch  and  found 
many  people  there  making  inquiries.  Most  of 
the  newspaper  men  in  town  were  on  hand.  I 
had  some  talk  with  the  Belgian  minister;  also 


Rumblings  21 

a  long  session  with  Shershevsky,  a  political  ed- 
itor of  the  Novoye  Vremya,  a  nice  little  chap 
with  a  military  uniform  and  a  bad  limp.  Every 
one  is  greatly  excited,  and  all  believe  a  break 
with  Germany  is  inevitable, — ^with  war  to  fol- 
low. I  spent  an  hour  telling  the  Eussian  jour- 
nalists what  immense  industrial  resources  and 
man  power  the  United  States  could  put  into  a 
war  if  she  were  roused.  One  of  them  asked  if 
the  Ford  factory  could  make  submarines  and 
aeroplanes,  and  A who  had  joined  us,  of- 
fered the  whole  establishment  as  if  it  were  his 
own. 

Monday,  February  5.  Still  no  definite  news. 
The  papers  think  we  have  broken  relations  with 
Germany. 

Tuesday,  February  6.    I  dined  with  H 

whom  I  like  very  much.  He  tells  me  that  in  his 
opinion  the  great  bulk  of  Russian  trade  in  re- 
tail merchants'  supplies  will  be  captured  by 
Germany  again  after  the  war.  Neither  the 
United  States  nor  England  can  compete  with 
her  in  prompt  deliveries,  long  credits,  nor  the 
exact  meeting  of  the  buyers'  needs.  In  ma- 
chinery, steel  and  iron  products,  railroad 
and  electrical  supplies  and  in  financing 
Russian  manufacturers,  we  can  lead  the  world 
if    we    will    put     aside    provincialism     and 


22    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

go  at  it  in  a  big  way.  I  pointed  out  that  in 
financing  one  has  to  look  to  the  law  for  pro- 
tection and  that  the  Russian  administration  of 
the  law  is  so  lax  and  so  corrupt  that  it  fright- 
ens away  capital.  He  thought  this  a  very  good 
point,  and  said  that  the  business  people  were 
beginning  to  realise  it  and  to  turn  against  the 
present  bureaucratic  government  which  they,  as 
conservatives,  had  tried  to  support  before. 
Every  one  is  gradually  coming  to  see  that  this 
unfair,  inefiScient  government  must  go. 

Wednesday,  February  7.  They  clean  the 
streets  of  this  city  well.  It  has  been  cold  stead- 
ily since  I  arrived,  usually  well  below  zero  Fah- 
renheit, and  it  snows  often.  If  they  did  not 
clear  the  streets  frequently,  the  spring  thaw 
would  be  a  disaster.  There  seem  to  be  plenty 
of  husky  men  to  chop  and  cart  snow. 

Thursday,  February  8.  Petrograd  is  more 
uneven  in  appearance  than  any  other  city  I 
have  seen.  The  guide  books  call  the  Mokho- 
vaya,  the  Sergievskaya  and  the  Fourshtadskaya 
fashionable  streets,  but  we  have  nothing  in 
American  cities  that  combines  handsome  resi- 
dence buildings  and  cheap  tawdry  shops  as  do 
these  streets.  The  Mokhovaya,  in  particular,  is 
spotted  with  middle-class  stores  throughout  its 
entire  length.    The  Fourshtadskaya  has  a  cou- 


X  •  — 


2^    = 


O 


o 


Rumblings  23 

pie  of  barracks,  several  cheap  "traktirs" 
(tea-house  saloons)  and  a  coal  yard.  The 
pictured  shop-signs,  portraying  with  a  fine  dis- 
regard for  proportions  the  various  wares  of- 
fered, be  they  beeves,  boots,  thimbles  or  aspar- 
agus, may  assist  the  illiterate  peasant  to  shop, 
but  they  do  not  help  the  artistic  eye  to  enjoy 
the  architectural  effects  of  these  so-called  resi- 
dence streets. 

As  I  walked  home  along  the  quays  to-night, 
the  sun  was  setting  right  behind  the  Petropav- 
lovsk  Fortress,  and  the  gold  spire  of  the  Peter 
and  Paul  Cathedral,  outlined  against  it,  was 
marvellously  beautiful.  The  haze  of  the  Pet- 
rograd  marshes,  which  we  dread  twenty-three 
hours  a  day,  redeems  itself  gloriously  at  sun- 
set time. 

Friday,  February  9.  We  seem  to  have  broken 
with  Germany.  We  hear  all  sorts  of  stories 
about  Ambassador  Gerard,  that  he  has  gone 
to  Copenhagen,  that  he  is  detained  in  Berlin  till 
Bernstorff 's  safety  is  assured,  that  he  has  gone 
to  Switzerland. 

I  dined  at  Donan*s  Restaurant  with  White- 
house  and  two  other  diplomats.  Most  of  the 
talk  was  of  war  and  America's  part  in  it. 

I  heard  some  interesting  things  about  the 
frustrations  met  in  trying  to  do  business  with 


24    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  Eussian  bureaucracy.  Nowadays  the  stand- 
patters of  the  General  Staff  are  paramount  and 
anything  that  they  do  not  understand,  which  in- 
cludes almost  everything  in  God's  world,  they 
veto.  Repatriation  of  certain  types  of  prison- 
ers, women,  old  men,  etc.,  has  been  solemnly 
agreed  to  for  over  a  year,  and  the  Palmyra 
hotel  here  is  full  of  Germans  for  whom  the  pre- 
liminary repatriation  order  has  been  given.  Mc- 
Clelland of  our  Petrograd  consulate  is  the  tem- 
porary boniface.  Yet  for  months  not  one  soul 
has  been  allowed  to  depart  from  Petrograd  for 
Germany.  Recently  an  important  German  lady 
died  in  the  hotel,  and  our  Embassy  told  the 
Foreign  Office  that  the  latter  was  responsible 
for  her  death.  The  Foreign  Office  was  discon- 
solate, as  it  had  arranged  to  exchange  this 
woman  for  an  important  Russian  lady  whom  it 
wanted  very  much.  It  blamed  the  delay  on  an 
old  brigadier  of  the  General  Staff  who  does  not 
believe  in  repatriation. 

Saturday,  February  10.  I  am  entertaining  at 
dinner  and  the  French  Theatre  next  Tuesday. 
I  went  around  this  morning  to  get  tickets,  and 
when  I  passed  the  Resurrection  Church,  I 
dropped  in  for  a  minute  or  two.  A  gold-robed 
priest  was  celebrating  morning  prayer  before  a 
many-pictured  altar,  a  sonorous  male  choir  was 


Rumblings  25 

chanting  within,  and  in  the  nave  a  group  of 
soldiers  and  common  people  were  crossing 
themselves.  The  interior  of  the  church  is  very 
gorgeous,  lofty  and  picturesque,  much  more 
pleasing  and  uplifting  than  its  bulbous  exterior. 
I  went  specially  to  the  spot  where,  under  a  mar- 
ble canopy,  one  can  still  see  the  bloodstained 
street-paving  on  which  Alexander  II  fell,  mor- 
tally wounded.  Poor  vacillating  Tsar,  who 
went  further  toward  reform  than  any  of  his 
ancestors  had  dared,  but  not  far  enough! 

Afternoon — Bad  news  for  my  dinner-party! 
as  it  has  just  been  decided  that  I  go  to  Moscow 
to-morrow. 

Sunday,  February  11.  I  started  at  10:30 
p.  M.  with  Philip  Piatt  for  a  five-day  trip  to 
Moscow. 

Monday,  February  12.  This  Nikolai  Railroad 
is  a  traveller's  joy;  it  has  practically  no  curve 
nor  grade  from  Petrograd  to  Moscow  and  is  the 
easiest  railroad  in  the  world  on  which  to  sleep 
comfortably.  And  fares  are  ridiculously  low. 
It  costs  R  21.75  (about  $6.50  at  present  ex- 
change) for  first-class  ticket  and  berth  for  the 
400  mile  trip  and  R  12.50,  or  $3.75,  for  a  second- 
class  ticket  and  berth. 

We  reached  Moscow  at  one  this  afternoon. 
On  our  way  from  the  station  to  the  office  the 


26    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

isvoshchik  lost  himself  completely  and  took  us 
far  around  the  inner  boulevards.  At  the  crest 
of  the  hill  above  the  Hermitage  Restaurant,  we 
looked  down  on  the  river  valley  and  half  of  the 
city,  and  marvelled  at  the  innumerable  gilded 
church-domes. 

On  our  way  from  the  office  to  the  National 
Hotel  we  passed  the  walls  and  quaint  old  Vlad- 
imir Gate  of  the  Chinese  Town  with  its  two 
churches,  quite  a  fascinating  picture  in  the  win- 
ter twilight.  At  the  hotel  I  stowed  myself  in 
Graham's  room  while  Piatt  was  assigned  to  a 
private  dining-room  (for  which  they  are  charg- 
ing him  a  la  carte  prices). 

Mr.  Varkala  of  the  International  Harvester 
Company,  erstwhile  of  the  University  Settle- 
ment, Chicago,  came  to  dinner  and  brought  with 
him  Mr.  Narushevich,  another  Lithuanian,  who 
is  chief  engineer  of  the  Moscow  City  Railway. 
The  latter  talked  little  English,  but  we  strug- 
gled along  and  finally  got  onto  Lithuanian  his- 
tory, a  subject  I  had  just  been  plodding  through 
in  ''The  Mongols  in  Russia."  I  talked  of  Ge- 
dimin  and  Olgerd  and  Vitold  and  Yagello  as  if 
they  were  members  of  my  family  and  Mr.  Naru- 
shevich was  much  excited  and  pleased.  Finally 
after  dilating  on  the  greatness  of  his  race,  he 
asked, ' '  How  do  people  at  large  in  America  feel 


Rumblings  27 

about  the  independence  of  Lithuania?"  I 
hadn't  the  heart  to  tell  him  that  most  Ameri- 
cans thought  Lithuania  was  a  mineral  water, 
so  I  ** passed  the  buck"  to  Graham,  who  paused 
for  a  long  breath  and  answered  most  diplomat- 
ically. 

Mr.  N.  says  there  are  only  3,000  tram  cars 
in  all  Russia  and  that  one-half  of  that  number  is 
in  this  city.  There  isn't  an  adequate  street-car 
service  in  the  entire  empire.  The  municipality 
of  Moscow  is  working  on  a  plan  for  a  cross- 
shaped  subway,  an  improvement  tremendously 
needed. 

After  dinner  G.  and  I  went  to  a  vaudeville 
show  at  the  ''Letuchny  Muish,"  a  famous  and 
characteristic  Russian  music  hall.  It  was  in  a 
cellar,  and  the  pit  and  the  gallery  were  fur- 
nished with  long  tables.  The  performance  was 
very  amateurish  but  uproariously  amusing, — 
a  series  of  one  act  plays,  tableaux,  songs  or 
stunts,  all  done  well  and  with  careless  buoyancy. 
Between  the  numbers,  an  announcer  kept  up  a 
running  fire  of  comments,  being  often  answered 
by  the  audience  and  getting  into  arguments 
which  caused  great  laughter. 

Tuesday,  February  13.  At  about  three,  Gra- 
ham, Piatt  and  I  quit  work  to  go  sight-seeing. 
We  started  for  the  Kremlin  but  stopped  at  the 


28    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Eevolution 

Iberian  Gate  of  the  old  city  to  see  the  holy 
shrine  of  the  Virgin.  The  unobtrusive  little 
building  (not  more  than  fifteen  feet  square) 
was  crowded  with  worshippers,  all  busy  buying 
and  lighting  candles,  praying  and  crossing 
themselves,  kissing  the  glass  over  the  ikons  with 
which  every  inch  of  wall  is  covered.  Before  the 
shrine,  men  and  women  knelt  on  the  snow  of  the 
open  square  and  prayed,  the  men  uncovered  in 
that  icy  weather.  It  was  a  wonderful  and  in- 
spiring display  of  religious  fervour,  sincere  and 
trustful  and  lacking  any  note  of  superstitious 
fear. 

We  passed  through  the  Red  Square  into  the 
Kremlin,  and  inspected  the  long  rows  of  can- 
nons captured  from  Napoleon's  army  and  the 
two  curiosities  called  ''Tsar,"  the  cannon  that 
will  not  fire  and  the  bell  that  will  not  ring.  We 
tried  to  get  into  the  churches  but  found  that 
they  had  all  closed  at  four  o'clock.  So  we  con- 
soled ourselves  with  a  general  survey  and  de- 
parted through  the  Holy  Gate.  Then  we  ex- 
plored that  bulbous  atrocity,  the  Church  of  Vas- 
sili  Blajenni.  Each  of  the  eleven  turrets  covers 
a  chapel,  four  in  the  basement  and  seven  up- 
stairs. Each  is  tiny,  cramped  and  unimpres- 
sive. From  the  dome  above  each  chapel  there 
looks  down  the  likeness  of  the  person  to  whom 


Rumblings  29 

it  is  dedicated,  Father,  Son,  Holy  Ghost,  Vir- 
gin, or  Saint, — a  most  surprising  effect  for  the 
visitor,  to  look  np  and  find  great  eyes  staring 
down  upon  him. 

G.  and  I  dined  at  the  Praga  Restaurant, 
where  we  ran  into  our  intelligent  Russian  friend 

,  who  joined  us  at  our  table  and  told  us 

many  interesting  things.  The  business  commu- 
nity regards  a  revolution  as  inevitable  and  fa- 
vors it,  since  present  conditions  are  unbear- 
able. The  old  order  has  practically  no  support 
outside  of  the  court  and  bureaucracy.  The 
people  are  all  alienated  except  a  few  of  the 
peasantry;  the  army  (including many  of  the  of- 
ficers) is  rank  with  republicanism;  the  merchant 
classes  are  disgusted ;  and  most  of  the  nobility 

are  sick  of  graft  and  inefiSciency.    and  his 

business  friends  are  all  keen  for  a  revolution, 
but  doubt  if  it  will  come  while  the  war  lasts. 
They  think  that  it  will  be  very  bloody  and  de- 
structive. 

He  told  us  about  Miliukoff's  speech  in  the 
Duma  which  quoted  the  satisfaction  of  the  Ger- 
man papers  over  Stiirmer's  appointment, — a 
piece  of  oratory  which  was  only  possible  be- 
cause Rodzianko,  the  president  of  the  Duma, 
had  left  the  hall  after  calling  to  the  chair  one  of 
the  few  deputies  who  did  not  understand  the 


30    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

German  language.  The  bureaucratic  Eight  ob- 
jected noisily  to  Miliukoff's  introduction  of 
quotations  in  German,  but  the  chairman  said,  '*I 
can't  understand  a  word  he's  saying,  so  why 
should  I  interfere  1 ' '  Miliukoff  is  said  to  have 
taken  refuge  in  the  British  Embassy  when  his 
life  was  threatened  because  of  this  speech. 
Stiirmer  fell,  and  the  danger  of  a  separate  peace 
went  with  him.  But  the  Tsar  was  furious  and 
Trepoff  never  had  a  chance. 

Graham  and  I  went  after  dinner  (at  which 
we  sat  till  11  p.  m.)  to  a  tawdry  cabaret  theatre 
called  Maxim 's,  run  by  an  American  negro,  but 
were  bored  and  didn't  stay  long. 

Wednesday/,  February  14.     S says  that 

when  he  came  to  Moscow  six  months  ago,  he 
found  his  office  full  of  German  spies  and  a  per- 
fect channel  for  communication  between  war 
prisoners  and  the  Fatherland;  furthermore, 
that  the  Moscow  police  knew  it  and  were  open- 
ing every  letter  addressed  there.  He  had  a 
bitter  fight  to  get  rid  of  some  of  the  spies.  He 
finally  routed  them  out,  despite  their  wailing 
and  gnashing  of  teeth,  by  the  threat  to  let  the 
police  examine  all  records.  The  regular  work 
was  entirely  neglected.  To  this  day  he  occa- 
sionally finds  in  desk  drawers  hundreds  of  un- 
answered letters  received  a  year  ago. 


Rumblings  31 

Thursday,  February  15.  Piatt  and  I  go  to 
Petrograd  at  midniglit  to-night.  To  relieve 
freight  congestion  the  Government  has  discon- 
tinued all  passenger  trains  on  main  lines  except 
one  a  day ;  and  we  've  had  a  hectic  time  getting 
tickets  and  a  compartment. 

This  is  a  church  holiday,  and  G.  and  I  went 
out  to  Lyubertsi,  the  Harvester  Company's  in- 
dustrial town  ten  miles  out,  to  ski  with  the  Var- 
kalas.  Four  of  us  started  straight  across  coun- 
try from  the  edge  of  the  town,  bound  for  the 
monastery  of  St.  Nikolai  Ugreshchi  six  miles 
away.  The  travelling  was  up-hill  and  down- 
dale,  but  the  snow  was  fairly  hard  and  the  air 
clear  and  exhilarating.  We  came  to  no  fences 
nor  boundary  marks  till  we  neared  the  monas- 
tery. The  roads  seemed  to  wander  at  haphaz- 
ard across  great  open  fields  bounded  only  by 
hills  and  occasional  clumps  of  trees  or  bushes. 
We  passed  a  squatty  village  and  on  the  hill 
above  it  a  white  gold-domed  Russian  church. 
After  an  hour  we  came  out  on  the  top  of  steep 
slopes  above  the  valley  of  the  Moskva  River, 
and  saw  far  below  us  the  steeples  and  domes  of 
the  monastery.  Here  we  had  glorious  coast- 
ing, so  good  that  we  climbed  up  and  tried  it 
again.  On  the  second  trip  down,  I  carelessly 
raised  one  foot  and  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 


32    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

my  ski  dash  off  down  the  hill  ahead  of  me.  Of 
course  I  had  a  beautiful  fall  and  the  rest  of  the 
slide  was  a  melange  of  hopping,  tripping  and 
bad  language. 

We  devoured  a  picnic  lunch  in  the  hospice  of 
the  monastery.  Afterwards  we  were  shown 
over  the  queer  old  place,  saw  its  three  churches, 
and  admired  its  jewel-covered  sacred  ikons,  es- 
pecially the  miraculous  picture  of  St.  Nikolas, 
which  four  hundred  years  ago  the  Grand  Prince 
Dmitri,  fleeing  in  an  hour  of  need,  found  hang- 
ing in  a  tree  that  grew  on  this  very  spot.  Leg- 
end says  that  the  Prince  forthwith  turned  and 
wiped  up  the  earth  with  his  Tartar  foes;  and 
then  founded  this  monastery. 

We  visited  the  enclosure  of  the  monks  who 
have  foresworn  the  world  and  never  go  outside. 
We  just  missed  an  interview  with  the  penitent 
Hermogen,  ex-bishop  of  Saratoff,  who  is  disci- 
plined here  for  his  direction  of  the  activities  of 
the  eloquent  fanatic  Iliodor.  It  was  under  his 
influence  that  Iliodor  gave  up  protecting  the 
Tsar  from  the  Duma  and  began  protecting  him 
from  the  bureaucracy. 

After  a  frigid  ride  home  and  supper,  we  took 

a  train  back  to  Moscow.    I  rode  with  H ,  one 

of  the  guests.  He  told  me  that  the  Russian  War 
Department  is  completely  paralysed  and  help- 


Rumblings  33 

less,  and  that  this  curtailment  of  passenger  traf- 
fic on  the  railroads  is  a  measure  of  desperation. 
There  are  25,000,000  poods  *  of  freight  piled  up 
in  Vladivostok.  He  believes  that  German  trade 
will  pick  up  right  after  the  war  and  that  much 
of  it  is  going  on  through  Sweden  now.  The 
Swedes  have  suddenly  put  consuls  everywhere. 
Shortly  after  the  war  began,  a  lace  firm  in 
Kharkoff,  which  formerly  bought  from  a  Ger- 
man house,  began  figuring  with  an  English  con- 
cern ;  the  latter  wanted  higher  prices  arid  hard 
credit  terms.  One  day  the  Kharkoff  firm  got  a 
letter  from  their  former  suppliers  in  Germany 
saying,  *' We  hear  you  are  figuring  with  an  Eng- 
lish house.  This  is  to  notify  you  that  you  can 
still  get  our  goods  through  So-and-so  in  Stock- 
holm, at  pre-war  prices,  and  we  will  give  you 
full  credit  until  after  the  war."  The  English 
firm  didn't  get  the  order. 

Labor  conditions  have  improved  immensely 
in  Eussia  and  wages  have  been  multiplied  by 
five.  Woman's  lot  is  infinitely  happier,  with 
high  wages  and  the  abolition  of  vodka.  A  de- 
cent government  need  fear  nothing  from  the 
people,  but  this  fiasco  of  a  system  is  constantly 
in  danger  of  a  revolution. 

Friday,  February  16.  Got  to  Petrograd  about 

*  A  pood  is  36  lbs. 


34    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

three.  Our  train  had  no  dining-car,  but  there 
were  frequent  ten-minute  stops  for  meals,  and 
station-restaurant  food  is  not  bad.  We  saw  no 
freight  moving  despite  the  fact  that  this  is  the 
third  day  of  curtailed  passenger  service.  We 
have  been  told  that  the  rolling  stock  is  in  such 
shocking  condition  that  it  must  all  be  over- 
hauled before  large  freight  movements  are  pos- 
sible. 

Dosch-Fleurot  of  the  N.  Y.  World  and  Piatt 
dined  in  my  rooms.  Dosch  was  in  Belgium  dur- 
ing the  first  year  of  the  war  until  the  Germans 
chased  him  out,  and  Piatt  had  just  come  from 
the  Belief  Commission;  so  we  had  a  Belgian 
evening. 

Saturday,  February  17.  The  bread  lines  in 
Petrograd  seem  to  have  grown  noticeably 
longer  and  slower  in  the  week  I  have  been  away. 
I  have  seen  bread  lines  on  certain  days  ever 
since  I  reached  Russia,  but  they  did  not  seem 
irksome  nor  much  of  a  hardship.  In  Moscow 
they  were  noisy,  good-natured  affairs,  but  tedi- 
ously slow. 

There  is  much  talk  of  the  distinctly  pro-Duma 
attitude  of  the  British  Commission  which  is  in 
Russia  now.  At  the  British  Banquet  they  got 
for  guest  of  honor,  not  Golitzin  the  premier,  but 
Eodzianko  the  president  of  the  Duma.    In  Mos- 


Rumblings  35 

cow  the  principal  ceremony  was  the  conterring 
of  a  decoration  on  the  liberal  mayor,  a  great 
enemy  of  the  bureaucracy.  When  Golitzin 
urged  Lord  Milner  to  stay  awhile  and  see  Rus- 
sia, the  latter  replied,  "Yes,  I  want  to  study  the 
workings  of  your  great  institution,  the  Duma, 
which  meets  so  soon," — referring  to  the  conjec- 
tured plan  of  the  bureaucracy  to  postpone  again 
the  reopening  of  the  Duma  which  is  set  for  Feb- 
ruary 27th.  The  British  want  to  strengthen  the 
Duma  and  forestall  a  revolution. 

Sunday,  February  18.  Went  to  the  English 
Church.  When  I  got  back  to  the  hotel,  I  found 
Huntington  waiting  hungrily  in  my  rooms  and 
we  went  off  to  his  apartment  for  lunch.  Later 
we  called  on  the  Harold  Williamses  and  had  a 
very  merry  time  although  I  don't  know  what 
most  of  it  was  about,  since  they  talked  Russian. 
H.  has  very  good  ideas  on  trade  develop- 
ment, and  on  sympathy  and  good  understand- 
ing with  the  Russians.  His  remarkable  com- 
mand of  the  Russian  language  gives  him  an 
entree  which  few  Americans  have. 

Monday,  February  19.  I  heard  yesterday  the 
story  of  the  spiritualist  seance  engineered  by 
Protopopoff  for  the  Tsar.  It  was  at  Tsarskoo 
Selo.  The  Tsar,  Tsarina,  their  two  eldest 
daughters,  the  minister  and  his  right-hand  man 


36    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

gathered  around  the  table.  Suddenly  Protopo- 
poff  grew  rigid,  with  set  eyes  and  tense  arms 
outstretched ;  then  after  some  minutes  he  pulled 
himself  together  and  said,  '  *  There  has  just  ap- 
peared to  me  the  spirit  of  St.  Gregory  Raspu- 
tin ;  and  he  bids  us  continue  to  strengthen  the 
Holy  Autocracy."  The  Tsar  sat  staring  and 
believed  every  word  of  it.  I  hear  this  story  is 
current,  with  some  variations,  and  is  regarded 
as  gospel  truth,  in  many  '' well-informed  cir- 
cles." 

Had  a  breathless  time  getting  my  Moscow 
train  this  evening.  At  7 :30,  with  letters  unfin- 
ished, trunks  half -packed,  hotel-bill  unsettled,  I 
found  that  it  left  at  8 :30  instead  of  10 :30.  One 
has  to  be  an  official  or  a  foreigner  to  get  a  rail- 
road ticket,  and  a  mind-reader  to  catch  a  train 
in  this  misguided  country. 

Tuesday,  February  20.  Reached  Moscow  at 
noon,  still  mad  and  feeling  pretty  rocky  into  the 
bargain.  The  journey  did  not  improve  my  tem- 
per nor  my  health. 

I  must  learn  to  carry  my  own  bed-linen  and  a 
teapot.  An  aged  chinovnik  who  shared  my  com- 
partment saved  me  from  a  general  collapse  by 
giving  me  a  glass  of  his  tea  this  morning.  May 
he  live  to  be  a  Real  State  Councillor  and  a  ci- 
vilian general! 


Rumblings  37 

I  did  not  see  a  single  car  of  freight  moving 
on  the  key-railroad  of  Russia  to-day. 

At  the  office  I  found  that  my  proofs  from  the 
printer,  due  two  days  ago,  had  not  yet  arrived. 
The  printer's  aunt  had  died  and  he  had  felt 
obliged  to  take  a  three-day  holiday.  If  the  de- 
ceased had  been  his  wife,  he  would  doubtless 
have  taken  a  fortnight,  and  that  would  have  car- 
ried him  into  Lent,  in  which  every  other  day  is 
a  church  holiday.  And  yet  they  say  the  Rus- 
sians are  overworked  and  down-trodden ! 

I  came  up  to  the  Hotel  National  for  lunch  with 
the  idea  of  taking  a  half -holiday  myself.    There 

I  met  Eugene  Prince  and  a  Dr.  H ,  and  they 

lunched  with  me.  Dr.  H.  is  an  American  sur- 
geon who  has  been  over  here  for  two  years  in 
charge  of  a  hospital  at  Gen.  Brusiloff's  field 
headquarters  and  has  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the 
Russian  army.  He  says  that  the  common  sol- 
diers are  almost  insensible  to  pain  and  can  eas- 
ily be  operated  on  without  an  anaesthetic.  They 
are  brave  but  lacking  in  ingenuity;  with  50,000 
American  soldiers  to  break  a  hole  in  the  German 
front,  cut  wires,  demolish  trenches,  and  get  the 
Russians  started,  he  believes  they  could  start  in 
to-morrow  and  advance  to  Warsaw  and  beyond. 
The  Germans  are  about  tired  out  and  their  line 
is  very  thin.    Only  the  lack  of  initiative  of  the 


38    A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

soldiers  and  the  timid  do-nothing-and-you'll- 
make-no-mistakes  policy  of  the  Eussian  com- 
manders enable  the  enemy  to  hold  on  with  so 
few  men. 

Dr.  H.  has  often  seen  dead  German  ma- 
chine-gun-men chained  to  their  guns.  These 
are  volunteers  who  get  extra  pay  for  their 
work,  which  is  no  more  dangerous  than  any 
other  branch  of  the  service. 

Brusiloff  is  a  good  deal  of  a  man.  He  is  con- 
stantly hampered  by  the  Tsarina, — whom  he 
hates.  H.  prophesies  that  the  general  will 
some  day  order  her  to  be  taken  out  and  shot.  All 
the  army  believe  she  is  sending  news  to  the  Ger- 
mans ;  and  certainly  the  latter  have  surprising 
advance  information  of  everything  the  Rus- 
sians do.  Once  Brusiloff  planned  an  attack  but 
made  it  five  days  before  the  date  set,  catching 
the  Germans  off  their  guard  and  winning  a 
great  victory.  Officer  prisoners  admitted  that 
the  attack  came  considerably  before  they  ex- 
pected it  and  were  indignant  at  Russian  per- 
fidy. The  Tsarina,  too,  was  furious  with  Brus- 
iloff and  gave  him  a  tongue-lashing,  but  he  said, 
"I  am  responsible  to  no  one  but  the  Tsar,"  and 
turned  on  his  heel  and  stalked  out. 


CHAPTER  in 


THE  LULL 


Wednesday,  February  21.  There  are  lots  of 
Chinese,  Mongols,  Sarts,  and  Tartars  in  Mos- 
cow. To-day  I  saw  two  Chinese  women  with 
bound  feet,  stumping  along  with  market  bas- 
kets on  their  arms.  Their  dress  was  the  regu- 
lar Chinese  costume,  black  blouses  and  loose 
straight  trousers. 

Randolph,  Taylor  and  I  were  invited  to  a 
benefit  performance  at  the  house  of  Mme.  Ma- 

riya  M ,  a  rich  and  charming  young  member 

of  a  famous  Moscow  family.  This  lady  takes  in- 
numerable dancing  lessons  and  does  very  artis- 
tic pas-seules.  We  arrived  late  at  her  big  house 
out  by  the  Red  Gates,  and  as  we  came  up  the 
ceremonial  staircase  we  saw  our  hostess  at  the 
top.  She  was  wearing  a  gorgeous  Russian  cos- 
tume and  a  stunning  peacock's  tail  of  pearls 
framed  her  charming  visage.  She  waved  her 
hand  at  us  and  called  out,  "Oh,  youVe  missed 
my  Russian  dance  and  I  did  so  want  you  to  see 

39 


40    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

it."  She  made  us  the  guests  of  honor,  sat  at 
supper  with  us  along  with  her  younger  sister 
and  a  handsome  young  Countess  Something-or- 
other;  she  joined  us  between  her  dances,  smiled 
on  us  and  told  us  that  her  second  husband  was 
to  be  an  American.  (Her  first  she  divorced 
three  years  ago.)  Her  second  dance  was  a 
dainty  Columbine  affair,  and  her  third  a  very 
pretty  and  effective  gypsy  dance.  The  inter- 
vening numbers  were  uninteresting.  The  enter- 
tainment was  organised  by  a  neighboring  high- 
school,  Mme.  M lending  her  house  and  her 

services.  The  audience  was  mostly  middle-class 
and  civilian ;  but  in  one  corner  was  a  little  group 
of  maimed  soldiers,  cheerful  despite  crutches, 
slings  and  bandages,  who  had  been  invited  in 
from  that  part  of  the  great  house  which  our  gen- 
erous hostess  had  loaned  to  the  Zemstvo  Union 
for  a  lazarette, 

Thursday,  February  22.  Graham  and  I  met 
on  the  street  Likiardopolis,  an  editor  of  the 
Utro  Rossi  newspaper,  who  told  us  that  his 
paper  had  just  been  fined  because  of  an  edito- 
rial commending  Lord  Milner  for  conferring  a 
decoration  on  such  a  prominent  liberal  as  the 
Mayor  of  Moscow. 

Lunched  with  S .  Some  of  his  wife's  rel- 
atives are  court  ladies  and  he  says  the  Tsarina 


The  Lull  41 

is  generally  hated  and  that  much  of  the  court 
and  even  some  of  the  Romanoffs  favor  a  revo- 
lution. Apparently  it  is  almost  unanimous. 
S is  pessimistic  as  to  the  result. 

Saturday,  February  24.  This  is  a  holiday  be- 
cause the  Russian  Lent  begins  Monday. 

I  went  out  this  morning  to  ski  in  Sokolniki 
Park  with  a  party  mainly  American,  of  which 
Mrs.  McGowan  and  her  charming  daughters 
were  the  moving  spirits. 

In  the  evening  G.  and  I  went  to  a  dance  at 
the  big  house  beyond  the  Red  Gates,  and 
had  a  most  amusing  time.  On  arriving  we 
found  our  hostess'  younger  sister  in  command, 
supported  by  her  fat  step-brother,  a  lieutenant 
at  home  for  a  few  days  on  leave.  In  one  cor- 
ner of  the  elaborately  furnished  salon  sat  the 
two  attractive  Misses  Smith  surrounded  by  all 
the  English-speaking  men ;  in  another  comer  a 
group  of  Russian-speaking  damsels  chatted 
with  an  awkward-looking  officer  and  an  equally 
awkward-looking  civilian;  several  unattached 
men  hovered  about  restlessly.  No  one  had 
a  notion  what  to  do.  The  younger  sis- 
ter giggled  charmingly;  we  admired  the 
paintings,  some  of  them  the  handiwork  of 
our  hostess,  and  talked  desultorily.  So  an 
hour  passed.     Then  our  hostess  came  in  from 


42    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  Charity  Bazaar,  clad  in  a  brilliant  peasant 
costume;  with  her  came  two  of  her  friends 
dressed  as  gypsy  fortune-tellers — dark-haired 
dashing  creatures, — a  pretty  blond  girl,  and  a 
funny  active  youngster  with  a  little  yellow 
beard.  Things  immediately  woke  up.  Dancing 
began,  all  waltzes  of  course.  The  Smith  girls 
waltz  very  well,  Mme.  M.  moderately  well,  the 
rest  quite  badly.  I  took  a  great  liking  to  one 
of  the  gypsies,  whose  first  name  was  Natasha, 
and  went  out  to  supper  with  her.  She  talked 
French  charmingly  but  no  English.  Beyond  me 
two  elderly  men  in  sack-suits  sat  on  either  side 
of  the  hostess,  and  across  the  table  was  a 
bearded  uncle-like  fat  man  with  celluloid  cuffs. 
(In  the  provinces  celluloid  linen  is  a  sign  of  no- 
bility.) We  walked  home  at  2  a.  m.  with  the  en- 
thusiastic little  bearded  chap.  It  was  very  cold 
and  there  were  no  cars  running,  nor  any  isvosh- 
chiks  to  be  had. 

Sunday,  February  25.  Tea  this  afternoon  at 
the  S s'.  Mrs.  S.  proves  to  be  a  most  de- 
lightful Russian  woman,  very  highly  connected. 
She  and  her  sister  showed  us  beautiful  boyar 
costumes  and  jewellery,  and  promised  to  go 
shopping  with  us  later  when  we  were  ready  to 
buy  mementos. 

G.  and  I  dined  at  the  Praga  and  went  to 


The  Lull  43 

the  Charity  Bazaar  at  the  Savoy  Theatre.  We 
found  our  hostess  of  last  night  presiding  at  a 
very  tawdry  booth,  but  herself  quite  a  land- 
mark in  another  great  Russian  headdress  of 
pearls.  She  received  us  with  warmth  and  an- 
nexed some  of  our  money  in  an  unscientific  gam- 
ble called  Krasnaya  Karta.  She  asked  us  to 
take  her  to  supper  in  a  few  minutes.  As  a  pre- 
liminary we  went  over  and  had  our  horoscopes 
read  by  that  round-faced  gypsy,  Miss  Natasha ; 
who  told  me  a  very  good  fortune,  including  the 
fact  that  the  affairs  of  the  heart  were  going 
well  and  that  the  greatest  success  in  that 
line  would  attend  a  long  voyage  I  should 
soon  take.  (Mind  you,  she  doesn't  know 
I'm  planning  to  marry.)  Then  Mme.  M.  joined 
us  and  we  went  to  the  supper  room.  It  was 
jammed  and  we  couldn't  get  a  table.  She 
wandered  around  visiting  and  shaking  hands 
with  people,  and  finally  settled  down  at  the 
Governor  General's  table  and  forgot  all  about 
us.  Her  name  is  Russian  for  Frost,  and 
there  is  something  in  a  name  this  time.  G. 
and  I  executed  a  quiet  ''sneak"  for  home  and 
bed. 

Monday,  February  26.  We  called  at  noon  on 
Gregory  Alexeieff,  secretary  of  the  General 
Committee  of  the  Union  of  Zemstvos;  I  pre- 


44    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

sented  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Samuel 
Harper  of  the  University  of  Chicago  and  we  had 
a  most  satisfactory  interview  with  him.  He  ad- 
vises me  to  read  Vinogradoff's  *' Self -Govern- 
ment of  Russia"  and  promised  to  send  other 
pamphlets  on  the  war-work  of  the  Union.  He 
will  then  introduce  me  to  various  members  of 
his  committee.  I  expressed  particular  interest 
in  the  financial  and  industrial  end. 

The  Zemstvo  Union  has  a  great  stone  build- 
ing six  or  eight  stories  high  on  the  Pekrovka, 
a  principal  business  street;  every  inch  of  it  is 
occupied  and  it  is  a  place  to  gladden  the  heart 
of  an  American.  The  atmosphere  is  absolutely 
different  from  that  musty  file-an-application- 
and-wait-three-weeks  air  which  oppresses  one  in 
the  huge  ministry  buildings  in  Petrograd.  The 
overhead  conveyors  for  "passing  the  buck"  are 
entirely  lacking.  The  Union  is  taking  care  of  all 
the  wounded,  is  feeding  and  clothing  the  armies, 
operating  tanneries,  shoe-shops  and  commisa- 
ries,  working  with  and  directing  the  Peasant 
Co-operative  Societies;  in  short,  it  is  doing 
three-fourths  of  the  work  of  the  moribund  War 
Office.  What  is  more,  it  is  doing  it  efficiently 
and  honestly. 

The  good  work  of  the  Union  is  a  thorn  in  the 
side  of  the  bureaucracy,  as  the  comparison  of 


The  Lull  45 

results  is  too  discreditable  to  the  government. 
So  the  latter  interferes  on  every  pretext.  A  few 
months  ago  the  Military  Governor  of  Moscow 
forbade  all  public  meetings  of  the  Union  and 
dissolved  a  convention  of  Zemstvo  presidents 
which  was  discussing  the  care  of  the  wounded, 
the  boot-supply,  and  other  treasonable  sub- 
jects. This  stupid  interference  has  deprived 
the  government  of  the  support  of  the  last 
' '  die-hards ' '  among  the  landed  gentry.  It  is  on 
a  par  with  tlie  recent  outrageous  arrest  of  the 
labor  members  of  the  War  Industry  Commit- 
tee *  in  Petrogi^ad. 

At  Mikhailoff's  fur  store  this  evening,  I 
talked  with  a  Belgian  who  was  in  Moscow  in 
1905.  He  described  to  me  the  riots,  barricades 
and  miscellaneous  murder  of  that  exciting 
time.  The  government  picked  out  its  most  un- 
ruly regiments  of  Cossacks  to  quell  the  disturb- 
ance, and  they  shot  at  everything  in  sight.  A 
man  standing  next  to  my  informant  in  a  side 
street  leaned  out  to  look  up  the  Tverskaya  and 
exposed  his  head  and  one  hand;  his  hand  was 
drilled  clean  through  with  a  bullet.  Lucky  it 
wasn't  his  head!    The  word  ''Cossack"  origi- 

*  This  Committee  was  formed  by  the  business  men  of  Kussia, 
aided  by  the  labor  leaders,  to  organize  the  production  and  pur- 
chase of  munitions. 


46    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

nally  meant  bandit  and  these  fellows  live  up  to 
their  name.  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  the  rev- 
olution which  is  coming  will  begin  with  a  mas- 
sacre of  the  Cossacks  comparable  only  to  that 
of  the  Janissaries,  or  to  Peter  the  Great's 
slaughter  of  the  Strelsi. 

Tuesday,  February  27.  An  uneventful  day  at 
the  office.  Lunched  at  the  Polish  restaurant. 
Russian  lesson  at  5 :30.  Dined  at  the  Hermitage. 

While  I  was  at  the  American  Consulate, 
two  Austrian  military  prisoners  came  in; 
they  had  been  left  behind  by  their  escort  and 
wanted  nothing  so  much  as  to  rejoin  their  own 
squad  on  its  way  to  the  prison  camp.  They 
were  pitiful  little  shrimps.  The  consulate  mes- 
senger refused  to  convoy  them  out  to  military 
headquarters,  saying  he  was  afraid  for  his  life 
at  the  latter  place.  After  some  telephoning,  the 
consul  gave  them  a  letter  of  identification  and 
sent  them  out  without  escort.  I  sincerely  pity 
them  if  they  wander  off  the  straight  path  from 
the  consulate  to  the  headquarters. 

Wednesday,  February  28.  I  walked  to  the  of- 
fice this  morning  with  Randolph.  He  told  me 
of  a  rumour  that  the  opening  of  the  Duma  was 
interfered  with  and  that  a  general  strike  has 
been  started  in  Petrograd. 

Graham  Taylor  and  Hamilton  dined  with  me. 


The  Lull  47 

We  hear  that  the  Duma  opened  with  wild 
speeches;  that  armored  motor-cars  and  pla- 
toons of  Cossacks  patrolled  the  Nevsky.  This 
may  be  idle  talk ;  everything  is  placid  as  a  mill- 
pond  here. 

Thursday,  March  1.  No  truth  in  the  above. 
Everything  is  quiet  at  Petrograd. 

I  called  at  2 :30  on  Mme.  G ,  a  clever  Rus- 
sian woman  who  lives  in  a  big  house  at  the  cor- 
ner of  one  of  the  main  squares.    The  G s  are 

a  rich  merchant  family,  and  their  house  is  full 
of  modern  Russian  paintings, — quite  an  inter- 
esting collection. 

We  talked  for  an  hour  about  current  topics. 
She  says  that  the  Duma  leaders  offer  very  little 
advantage  over  the  present  ministers  because 
they  are  not  practical  enough  to  form  a  success- 
ful administration  even  if  they  were  given  the 
chance.  She  deplores  the  lack  of  practicality  in 
the  leaders  of  the  liberal  movement.  I  ascribed 
this  to  (1)  the  penalty,  in  loss  of  organising  and 
of  executive  ability,  that  a  country  pays  for  be- 
ing agricultural  rather  than  industrial;  (2)  the 
unworldly  and  kaleidoscopic  idealism  of  the  In- 
telligentsia who  are  called  upon  to  lead  and  who 
are  mostly  professional  men  of  no  business  ex- 
perience; and  (3)  the  indifference  of  the  great 
middle-class,  which  does  not  call  the  best  avail- 


48    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

able  talent  into  its  service  and  then  by  organ- 
ised effort  and  continuous  public  opinion  force 
the  government  to  progress.  She  said,  ''The 
Intelligentsia  mean  well,  but  they  cannot  even 
govern  their  own  lives ;  when  they  have  a  little 
money  they  live  extravagantly,  when  they  have 
none  they  live  badly. ' '  No  one  wants  a  change 
to  a  feeble  liberal  government  which  would  fail 
and  cause  reaction  or  a  halting  of  the  war. 

She  does  not  believe  that  there  will  be  a  rev- 
olution until  after  the  war;  and  points  to  the 
patience  of  people  in  the  bread  lines  as  a  reason 
for  so  thinking.  There  were  strikes  yesterday 
at  some  of  the  big  factories  here  because  the 
workmen  were  unable  to  get  bread,  but  they 
were  entirely  peaceful  and  were  easily  settled. 
The  people  are  almost  too  reasonable ! 

She  believes  that  any  revolution  during  the 
war  would  mean  a  separate  peace,  as  there  is 
said  to  be  a  clause  in  the  alliance  treaty  which 
permits  it  in  case  of  domestic  insurrection.  The 
government  is  using  this  clause  as  a  club  over 
the  heads  of  would-be  revolutionists.  No  one 
in  Eussia,  except  the  desperately  seared  bu- 
reaucracy, wants  a  separate  peace. 

Of  course  the  war  might  be  continued  in  spite 
of  a  revolution  if  Grand  Duke  Nikolai  Nikolaie- 
vich  were  called  in  from  the  Caucasus,  but  he  is 


The  Lull  49 

said  to  be  drinking  heavily  and  to  be  very  sullen. 
Another  possibility  is  Grand  Dnke  Nikolai  Mik- 
hailovich,  who  is  described  as  the  most  enlight- 
ened member  of  his  tribe.  He  was  the  only  man 
who  dared  applaud  when  Purishkevich  made  his 
famous  attack  on  Rasputin  in  the  Duma. 
Some  leader  who  can  overthrow  the  govern- 
ment and  fight  the  war  simultaneously  is  ab- 
solutely indispensable  to  a  successful  revolu- 
tion. 

Mme.  G.  does  not  believe  a  word  of  the 
stories  of  intimacy  between  Rasputin  and  the 
Tsarina.  The  latter  she  describes  as  very  nerv- 
ous and  unhappy,  always  at  high  tension  be- 
cause of  the  hopeless  ill-health  of  the  Tsarevitch 
and  the  problem  of  succession;  above  all,  a 
woman  fearfully  imperious  with  everybody ;  but 
for  a  long  period  of  years  very  pro-English  in 
sympathy,  and  entirely  out  of  touch  with  her 
Hessian  relations. 

I  asked  about  the  friction  between  the  Tzar- 
ina  and  Brusiloff.  She  said  that  my  version  of 
the  encounter  (see  diary  of  Feb.  20)  was  quite 
distorted;  she  had  the  true  story  from  Brusil- 
off 's  adjutant.  The  Tsarina  is  constantly  inter- 
fering in  matters  pertaining  to  the  conduct  of 
the  war,  frequently  going  out  to  the  front  alone 
and  confusing  the  General  Staff  with  impossi- 


50    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

ble  orders.  On  tlie  occasion  in  question  tlie  staif 
had  issued  an  order  for  a  simultaneous  advance 
on  all  fronts  on  a  given  day.  Brusiloff  antici- 
pated it  by  five  days;  conditions  on  his  front 
were  favorable  earlier,  he  thought,  and  the  re- 
sults in  ground  gained  and  prisoners  captured 
justified  this  conclusion.  He  reported  to  the 
Staff  very  much  pleased  with  himself,  and  found 
the  Tsarina  there.  She  treated  him  to  a  ti- 
rade,— which  in  a  way  was  justified  because  the 
greatest  problem  has  been  to  get  the  generals  to 
work  together.  Brusiloff  was  naturally  furious 
and  retorted:  *'I  am  only  responsible  for  my 
actions  to  His  Majesty  the  Tsar."  The  Tsar- 
ina dismissed  him  angrily  and  later  made  the 
Tsar  refuse  to  see  him.  The  general  was  so 
despondent  at  this  sign  of  ill-favor  that  his  ad- 
jutant had  to  stay  with  him  constantly  to  keep 
him  from  committing  suicide. 

Saturday,  March  3.  Until  2 :30, 1  worked  and 
wrote  letters  at  the  office  without  even  stopping 
for  lunch, 

G.  and  I  saw  Prince  off  for  Petrograd  at 
3:00  and  then  lunched  at  Filipoff's  restaurant 
and  bakery  near  the  Post  Office.  At  that  hour 
there  was  still  a  long  bread-line  outside  and  only 
a  small  section  counted  out  by  a  policeman  was 
allowed  to  enter  at  one  time.    While  we  sat  at 


The  Lull  51 

lunch,  a  soldier  in  line  inside  the  shop  started 
a  noisy  argument  with  the  cashier;  suddenly 
from  the  restaurant  part  strode  an  officer  and 
said  one  word ;  the  soldier  clapped  his  heels  to- 
gether and  saluted,  and  we  heard  no  more,  not 
even  a  murmur,  from  him. 

In  a  few  moments  the  supply  of  bread  gave 
out  and  about  fifty  persons,  inside  and  out,  were 
told  they  could  get  none.  Such  vociferous  de- 
spair as  was  uttered  by  some  women  at  the  head 
of  the  line  I  never  heard;  those  further  back 
must  have  been  desperate  already  for  they  slunk 
away  without  a  word. 

We  supplemented  our  lunch  with  hot  choco- 
late at  Siou's  tea  shop  on  the  Kuznetsky  Most. 
There  we  met  Griffin  Barry,  just  in  from  Kazan, 
a  pleasant  chap  in  riding  breeches,  puttees  and 
goloshes.  I  offered  him  a  refuge  for  the  night 
in  my  room  as  he  couldn't  get  anything  at  any 
hotel.  I  was  much  interested  in  his  description 
of  the  unhappy  situation  of  a  young  English 
woman  married  to  an  elderly  German  who  is  in- 
terned in  Kazan  and  is  sick  and  cranky.  The 
wife  is  of  course  free  to  travel  but  refuses  to 
leave  her  husband,  and  no  one  in  the  town  will 
have  anything  to  do  with  her.  One  of  the  little 
tragedies  of  this  war. 

Sunday,  March  4.    Dined  at  the  G s ',  with 


52    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

a  company  of  sixteen.  At  dinner  I  sat  between 
the  hostess  and  Mrs.  Lockhart,  wife  of  the  Brit- 
ish Consul,  both  of  whom  are  charming.  We 
talked  mostly  of  the  international  situation, — 
nothing  original, — and  small  talk.  Some  one 
said  that  in  one  of  the  bakeries  the  other  day, 
at  the  time  the  bread  gave  out,  the  crowd  spied 
three  wagon-loads  of  flour  in  the  back-yard. 
They  seized  them  and  found  that  they  were  con- 
signed to  the  postmaster  of  Moscow  and  two 
other  officials.  People  are  beginning  to  rebel 
and  to  cry  out  that  there  is  plenty  for  the  rich 
and  powerful,  but  only  bread-cards  and  scarcity 
for  the  poor. 

Russian  manners  are  somewhat  different 
from  ours.  Before  entering  the  dining-room  we 
stood  around  a  table  in  the  hall  which  was 
loaded  with  all  sorts  of  hors  d'cpuvres  and  li- 
queurs, and  had  a  fair-sized  meal  of  them. 
Throughout  the  dinner  Mr.  G.  kept  constantly 
rising  and  circulating  about  the  table  with  a 
bottle  in  each  hand,  filling  the  glasses  of 
his  guests.  I  was  the  only  man  in  full  dress ; 
the  rest  divided  between  dinner  coats,  frock- 
coats  and  cutaways.  One  man  wore  a  black 
stock  with  a  cutaway.  A  stout  individual  op- 
posite me  tucked  his  napkin  into  his  collar  at 
dinner. 


The  Lull  53 

Afterwards  we  had  two  tables  of  bridge  and 
one  of  poker.  I  played  bridge  with  Mme.  Gr., 
Mrs.  L.,  and  a  large  Russian  woman  who  had 
been  late  to  dinner  on  account  of  hospital  work. 
Very  bad  bridge  it  was,  at  5  kopeks  a  point 
(true  Eussian  recklessness!),  and  I  came  out  5 
roubles  behind.  But  the  people  were  delight- 
ful, especially  Mme.  G. 

Monday,  March  5.  Lunched  heavily  at  the 
Polski  Restaurant,  with  McGowan,  Flack,  Tay- 
lor and  Barry.  Flack  has  come  from  the  Phil- 
ippines and  described  travel  in  China  and  on 
the  Trans-Siberian.  We  will  probably  all  go 
home  that  way  when  war  is  declared  on  Ger- 
many. 

Chocolate  with  Graham  at  Siou's  to  take  the 
place  of  dinner.  Then  Hamilton  dropped  in  at 
my  room  and  at  8 :00  we  went  down  to  the  din- 
ing-room for  a  bite.  We  found  the  usual  group 
of  Embassy  Delegates  dining  there.  I  had  a 
long  talk  with  Bakeman,  who  is  a  very  real 
person,  about  his  experiences  with  the  Red 
Cross  during  the  retreat  from  Serbia.  The  rest 
were  discussing  England's  policy. 

Bakeman  tells  me  that  at  Pensa,  the  capital 
of  his  province,  the  police  practise  every  even- 
ing with  machine  guns  just  outside  the  city ;  he 


54    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

has  seen  and  heard  them  often.  Getting  ready 
for  the  revolution! 

Wednesday,  March  7.  A  busy  day  at  the  of- 
fice. Among  other  events,  we  had  a  call  from 
an  ex-employe,  a  German  woman  who  was  dis- 
missed as  a  spy.  This  woman  used  to  have  let- 
ters from  German  prisoners  sent  here,  thinking 
that  they  would  not  be  opened  because  of  the 
American  address.  The  Russians  were  clever 
enough  to  ''catch  on"  and  all  our  mail  was  cen- 
sored indiscriminately.  This  time  she  came  to 
get  some  letters  which  we  were  holding  firmly 
and  suspiciously  and,  foreseeing  our  refusal  to 
part  with  them,  she  urged  us  to  read  them  and 

give  them  to  her  if  they  were  all  right.    S 

at  first  demurred,  then  agreed  to  take  the  mat- 
ter under  consideration,  but  told  her  that  he 
would  turn  any  suspicious  letters  over  to  the 
police.  With  that  she  went  out  like  a  lamb,  and 
my  guess  is  she  will  never  come  back. 

Thursday,  March  8.  I  dined  with  Fell ;  then 
I  went  out  to  call  on  the  McGowans.  They  live 
just  off  the  Povarskaya,  which  is  full  of  hand- 
some houses  and  is  the  street  in  which  Tolstoi 
located  the  Rostoff  house  in  ''War  and  Peace." 
It  was  a  magnificent  night,  with  a  full  moon  in 
a  clear  sky  over  fluffy  new  snow.  Walking  home 
I  passed  along  the  Mokhovaya  under  the  Krem- 


The  Lull  55 

lin  battlements,  and  the  moonlight  effect  on 
Ivan  Veliki 's  tower  and  on  the  church  domes 
and  palaces  was  stunning.  It's  good  to  be  alive 
on  such  a  night,  but  one  hates  to  be  7,000  miles 
from  one's  fiancee. 

Friday,  March  9.  Russia  is  a  great  place  in 
which  not  to  do  shopping.  The  salespeople  sim- 
ply don't  want  to  wait  on  you,  don't  care  wheth- 
er you  buy  or  not.  The  foreigners  leave  them 
far  behind  in  trade  and  the  best  shops  are 
manned  with  English,  Belgians,  Swedes  and 
Baltickers.  Formerly  the  Germans  were  the 
great  shop-keepers  of  Eussia. 

This  evening  I  went  to  the  opera  in  the  box 
of  Maddin  Summers,  the  American  Consul,  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Summers,  the  latter 's  sister, 
Bakeman,  Pettit,  Games  and  Lewis.  It  was  at 
the  Great  Theatre,  which  is  most  impressive 
with  its  six  tiers  of  thirty  boxes  each.  The  op- 
era, Tchaikovsky's  ''Pikovaya  Dama"  (''Queen 
of  Spades"),  was  very  gay,  with  refreshing  mu- 
sic, an  exciting  plot  that  travelled  right  along, 
and  scenes  which  lent  themselves  to  picturesque 
setting.  It  was  very  well  done,  though  there 
were  no  famous  singers  in  the  cast. 

Saturday,  March  10.  Explored  the  Kitai- 
gorod  (the  Chinese  Town,  within  the  ancient 
walls  that  still  surround  a  half-mile  of  city 


56    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

north  of  the  Kremlin).  Coming  from  the  busi- 
ness district  of  the  Lubyanka,  I  followed  the 
parked  boulevard  along  the  north  wall  to  the 
Varvarka  Gate  and  then  up  past  the  house  of 
the  Boyars  Romanoff.  It  stands  on  a  side-hill 
above  the  courtyards  of  an  old  monastery, 
small,  square,  immaculately  Russian,  an  exact 
type  of  the  proudly  simple  Moscow  of  the  days 
before  Ivan  the  Terrible  and  the  Time  of 
Trouble.  Somehow  one  cannot  imagine  the  in- 
habitants of  that  house  admiring  the  bulbous 
horrors  of  the  Church  of  St.  Vassili  the  Beati- 
fied, just  beyond. 

Then  I  entered  the  Kremlin  through  the  Holy 
Gate,  hat  in  hand,  and  went  straight  to  the  Us- 
penski,  the  Coronation  Cathedral.  I  couldn't 
grasp  its  interior  proportions  because  of  a  great 
scaffolding,  but  got  an  impression  of  very  ef- 
fective height.  The  walls  are  a  veritable  gal- 
lery of  holy  pictures,  closely  set  in  a  golden 
framework,  each  showing  only  the  faces  and 
hands  of  its  figures  through  openings  in  a  sheer 
gold  screen.  Above,  the  walls  are  frescoed  with 
heroic  figures  of  saints,  far  up  into  the  pillared 
vaults  of  the  ceiling.  The  floor  space  is  small, 
square  and  completely  open  except  for  pillars 
and  the  two  garish  pavilions  containing  the 
thronrs  of  the  Tsarina  and  of  the  Patriarch.    In 


The  LuU  57 

one  corner  a  deep-voiced  priest  was  rehearsing 
chants  with  two  novices  and  making  the  scaf- 
foldings vibrate  with  his  thunderous  tones.  A 
voluble  sexton  pounced  upon  me,  and  proudly 
showed  me  his  treasures,  a  nail  from  the  True 
Cross,  the  tombs  and  relics  of  a  half  dozen  early 
Russian  saints  and  Patriarchs,  and  the  "  Vladi- 
mir" Virgin  supposed  to  have  been  painted  by 
St.  Luke.  This  old  painting  is  the  best  relic  of 
all,  since  it  undoubtedly  came  to  Kief  from  Con- 
stantinople in  the  days  of  Vladimir  Monomakh 
and  was  carried  in  solemn  procession  from  Kief 
to  Vladimir,  north  of  the  Volga,  when  Mono- 
makh's  grandson.  Prince  Andrei  Bogolyuboff 
(The  Love  of  God),  moved  his  capital  north- 
ward before  the  increasing  pressure  of  Jinghis 
Khan's  titanic  conquests. 

It  was  snowing  and  blowing,  but  I  couldn't 
resist  the  temptation  of  climbing  Ivan  Veliki 's 
tower  for  its  view  of  the  city.  Having  safely 
reached  earth  from  its  precarious  ice-coated 
heights,  I  walked  through  the  palace  yard  to  the 
middle  gate  and  departed. 

I  had  tea  with  the  wife  of  the  British  Consul, 
and  there  met  the  wife  and  daughter  of  the 
French  Consul.  The  talk  was  mostly  of  the  ter- 
rible difficulties  of  keeping  house.  I  judge  that 
except  for  those  who  live  in  hotels,  all  are  suf- 


58    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

fering  alike  from  inability  to  get  supplies. 
•  Prices  are  getting  higher  and  the  list  of  unob- 
tainable necessities  is  longer  every  day.  What 
will  the  end  be? 

Dined  at  the  H s'.    Was  much  interested 

in  an  account  of  the  "pogrom"  in  Moscow  in 
the  first  year  of  the  war,  when  the  mob  sud- 
denly rose  up  and  began  smashing  everything 
German  until  the  street-cars  could  not  run  on 
the  Myasnitzky  for  the  wreckage  thrown  from 
the  windows. 

Sunday,  March  11.  Fell  and  I  went  to  the 
^yi^  Cathedral  of  the  Redeemer  this  morning  for 
mass.  It  was  most  impressive.  The  great 
church  was  filled  with  people,  all  standing,  with 
hardly  a  passage-way  except  the  broad  aisle 
from  the  altar-doors  to  the  platform  in  the  cen- 
tre of  the  nave.  And  the  crowd  was  entirely 
made  up  of  working  people;  there  was  hard- 
ly a  well-dressed  person  in  the  assemblage.  We 
arrived  in  the  middle  of  the  service  and  inside 
the  open  gates  of  the  great  pictured  Byzantine 
kiosk  which  serves  as  an  altar, — in  the  chancel, 
well  beyond  the  transepts, — we  could  see  gold- 
robed  priests  preparing  the  communion.  Pres- 
ently the  doors  were  closed  and  a  heavy  curtain 
slid  over  the  broad  open  transom  above.  While 
some  mystery  was  being  performed  within, — ^we 


The  Lull  59 

could  see  through  the  arabesques  of  the  doors 
that  candles  were  carried  to  and  fro, — two  male 
choirs,  placed  in  porches  on  either  side  of  the 
kiosk,  sang  very  beautifully.  Then  the  wide 
center  door  swung  open,  two  priests  came  from 
side  gates  each  with  a  candelabrum,  one  with 
two  candles  and  one  with  three,  the  saintly  old 
archbishop  came  out  of  the  altar,  took  the  can- 
delabra, made  the  sign  of  the  cross  with  them 
and  bowed,  uttering  a  prayer.  This  was  a  sign 
for  even  more  violent  bowings  and  crossings  on 
the  part  of  the  people  than  those  to  which  we 
had  become  accustomed.  Presently  a  procession 
of  priests  in  gorgeous  gold  robes  followed  the 
archbishop  down  the  broad  lane  to  the  platform 
in  the  veiy  centre  of  the  nave.  I  have  never 
seen  a  sweeter  face  than  that  of  this  dear  old 
man,  his  white  beard  streaming  to  his  waist, 
his  brow  pressed  with  a  mitre  heavy  with  jewels 
and  pictures.  His  voice  was  plaintive  and 
sweet,  too,  as  he  read  the  prayers  from  a  great 
gold  book  brought  with  much  ceremony  from  the 
sanctuary  and  held  by  a  kneeling  priest  dur- 
ing the  reading.  Two  black-bearded  priests 
sang  the  responses;  one  with  a  deep  thunder- 
like voice  which  filled  the  high  dome  above  and 
seemed  to  shake  the  four  evangelists  and  the 
serried  saints  of  the  upper  walls;  the  other,  a 


60    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Eevolution 

weak-faced  man  with  spectacles,  with  a  bass 
voice  clear  as  a  clarion.  The  most  impressive 
moment  was  a  special  prayer  for  the  success  of 
the  war,  when  every  soul  in  the  great  church 
knelt  reverently.  Then  the  procession  marched 
back,  soldiers  pushing  through  the  crowd  and 
lining  the  way ;  the  doors  swung  to  and  the  ser- 
vice was  over. 

It  was  a  marvellously  clear  day.  We  crossed 
the  river  and  walked  up  and  down  the  quay 
opposite  the  Kremlin;  then  went  over  to  the 
Tretyakoff  Museum.  A  line  of  people  a  block 
long  were  in  the  street  in  front  of  the  entrance, 
awaiting  a  chance  to  see  the  pictures,  and  their 
progress  was  very  slow;  so  we  gave  up  and 
turned  toward  home.  Every  one  was  in  a  holi- 
day mood,  smiling  and  courteous. 

In  the  afternoon  I  called  on  Mme.  G ,  and 

found  her  without  guests.  I  heard  that  the  Mu- 
nicipal Union  has  been  asked  to  tackle  the  food- 
supply  problem,  which  is  getting  perfectly  im- 
possible; and  has  made  its  acceptance  condi- 
tional on  having  control  of  the  railroads,  with- 
out which  its  officers  feel  it  will  only  fail  dis- 
mally. The  Minister  of  Provisions  said  this 
week  in  the  Duma  that  a  few  months  ago  he 
would  not  let  himself  believe  what  he  heard 
about  food  conditions,  but  now  he  knows  that 


The  Lull  61 

the  statements  have  under-described  the  actual 
situation.  We  hear  there  has  been  some  rioting 
in  Petrograd  during  the  last  day  or  so ;  a  food 
store  in  the  Kamenny  Ostroff  Prospekt  broken 
into,  the  mob  fired  on,  etc.  Certainly  all  is  quiet 
here,  although  distress  is  evident. 


CHAPTER  rV 

THE  EEVOLT    f^  f  .^^.'^/c  ^^.%-'   ,  „ 

^1 1/'     Monday,  March  12.    Last  night  when  I  got 


^ 


on  the  train  in  Moscow,  I  found  my  reservation 
in  a  compartment  with  two  men  and  a  woman 
(or  lady,  I  may  fairly  say).  The  train  left  at 
midnight;  my  ticket  entitled  me  to  one  of  the 
lowers  and  the  lady  sat  in  the  other  while  a 
peasant  of  shop-keeper  type  dropped  off  to  sleep 
in  the  npper  above  her.  I  removed  collar,  coat, 
and  shoes,  wrapped  myself  in  my  overcoat  and 
prepared  for  sleep.  Then  the  lady  skilfully 
climbed  a  ladder  and  leaped  into  the  other 
upper.  Thus  perfectly  naturally  and  decor- 
ously we  travelled  together.  Next  morning  we 
all  conversed  and  a  third  man  who  proved  to 
be  a  clerk  for  the  Russian-American  Chamber 
of  Commerce  produced  some  chewing-gum, 
which  was  an  amusing  novelty  to  the  lady  and 
the  peasant. 

At  the  Nikolaieif  Station  in  Petrograd  (where 
we  arrived  at  1:00  p.m.)  the  porter  told  me 

62 


The  Revolt  63 

there  were  no  .svoshchiks.  When  I  reached  the 
front  of  the  station,  I  knew  instinctively  that 
the  revolution  had  begun.  Not  a  vehicle  in 
sight,  except  a  stray  truck-sledge  or  two,  not  a 
street-car  on  that  usually  busy  square ;  only  the 
people  standing  amazed  on  the  sidewalks  and 
a  patrol  of  Cossacks  riding  placidly  around  the 
snow-covered  road-way.  A  workman  came  and 
explained,  and  then  showed  me  by  gestures,  that 
there  had  been  shooting.  Everything  was  so 
placid  that  it  was  hard  to  believe.  I  put  on  my 
extra  overcoat  under  my  fur  coat,  used  the 
strap  of  the  Moscow  Consulate's  mail  pouch  to 
couple  up  my  big  suitcase  (a  good  100-lb.  load), 
swung  them  across  my  shoulder,  grabbed  my 
other  suitcase,  and  started  to  foot  it  to  the 
American  Embassy  a  long  mile  away. 

The  broad  roadways  of  the  Nevsky  were  ab- 
solutely empty  for  two  or  three  blocks,  but  be- 
yond the  Liteiny  I  thought  I  saw  troops.  In 
the  side  streets  I  traversed,  knots  of  people 
were  busily  discussing  the  situation ;  every  one 
was  excited  and  happy,  and  many  laughed  at  my 
tottering  steps. 

My  way  took  me  right  through  the  great  bar- 
racks district  of  the  Preobrajenskaya  and  ev- 
erywhere I  saw  groups  of  soldiers  in  heated  con- 
troversy; some  of  them  were  armed  with  guns 


64    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

and  bayonets,  some  empty-handed.  It  was  a 
sunny  day,  my  two  coats  approximated  a  Turk- 
ish bath,  and  my  pauses  for  rest  grew  longer 
and  longer ;  during  one  of  them,  I  found  myself 
near  an  especially  excited  group  of  wranglers 
and  soon  was  looking  into  the  muzzles  of  the  ri- 
fles which  one  faction  was  pointing  at  the  other. 
To  divert  the  storm,  I  went  to  the  nearest  of 
them  and  in  stammering  Russian  asked  my  way 
to  the  American  Embassy.  They  forgot  their 
quarrel  long  enough  to  grin  and  tell  me. 

"While  I  rested  at  the  corner  of  the  Karoch- 
naya,  I  watched  officers  trying  vainly  to  make  a 
battalion  fall  in;  some  of  the  soldiers  refused, 
some  gave  their  guns  openly  to  street-boys,  and 
walked  away.  A  non-commissioned  officer  with 
a  drawn  revolver  tried  to  assemble  the  men  by 
chasing  them  and  pointing  his  weapon  at  them, 
but  many  shrugged  their  shoulders  and  dodged 
him.  A  good  part  of  the  battalion,  however, 
was  assembling.  The  crowd  on  the  opposite 
sidewalk  told  me  that  this  was  the  Semenovsky 
Regiment  of  the  Guards.  Groups  of  mounted 
couriers, — ^mostly  bouncing  infantrymen  on 
sleigh  horses, — were  dashing  to  and  fro  in  the 
Voskresensky,  apparently  between  this  regi- 
ment and  troops  in  the  Sergievskaya.  Envoy- 
bearing  automobiles,  overloaded  with  soldiers 


The  Revolt  65 

and  street-boys,  did  not  hesitate  to  drive  close 
to  the  forming  ranks,  where  to  the  great  joy  of 
the  crowd  they  bantered  the  loyalists  and  of- 
fered terms  of  surrender.  The  officers  of  the 
Semenovsky  seemingly  lacked  the  nerve  to  pre- 
vent the  spreading  mutiny. 

Up  to  the  time  I  reached  the  Embassy  I  did 
not  hear  a  shot  fired. 

At  that  isle  of  safety  I  delivered  the  mail 
pouch  and  got  permission  to  leave  my  baggage 
temporarily,  as  the  one-and-a-half -mile  walk  to 
the  hotel  was  more  than  I  could  face  at  that 
crisis. 

I  learned  then  and  afterwards  fragments  of 
the  story  of  the  last  few  days.  There  had  been 
numerous  outbursts  of  fighting  between  the  Cos- 
sacks, and  the  workmen  and  students.  One  of 
the  Embassy  staff  had  heard  a  student  make  an 
inflammatory  speech  on  the  Nevsky  and  had 
seen  an  officer  shoot  him  dead,  only  to  be  him- 
self killed  by  an  indignant  soldier.  Huntington 
and  Trissell  had  crossed  the  Nevsky  right  be- 
hind a  firing-line  of  soldiers  lying  on  the  snow 
and  shooting  at  random  down  the  street.  Po- 
licemen had  fired  into  a  crowd  in  the  course  of 
suppressing  a  bread  demonstration  over  on  the 
Petersburg  side.    All  these  are  the  old,  old  story 


66    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

of  a  workmen-and-student  demonstration  blood- 
ily put  down  by  the  police  and  Cossacks.* 

This  morning,  though,  Turner  of  the  Embassy 
passed  the  barracks  of  the  Preobrajensky,  Pe- 
ter the  Great's  old  bodyguard,  and  saw  the  en- 
tire regiment  drawn  up  in  hollow  square  and  its 
colonel  addressing  it  on  the  necessity  of  firing 

*  (After  the  revolution.)  Many  eyewitnesses  tell  me  that  the 
attacks  on  the  people  during  the  three  days  previous  to  the 
revolt  of  the  troops  had  been  carefully  managed  by  the  Cossacks 
so  as  to  do  as  little  harm  as  possible.  The  roughing  was  all 
good-natured  and  as  gentle  as  was  compatible  with  theatrical 
effect.  The  policemen  showed  their  usual  cold-blooded  brutal- 
ity, and  it  was  noticed  that  wherever  a  Cossack  could  surrep- 
titiously strike  a  policeman  with  his  nagaika  or  saber,  he  did 
so  gleefully.  There  is  record  of  at  least  one  policeman  killed 
by  an  accidental  (?)  shot  from  a  Cossack  rifle.  These  wild 
warriors  have  always  heretofore  been  kept  isolated  and  encour- 
aged to  be  barbarous.  In  this  war  the  government  has  been 
obliged  to  use  them  in  the  trenches,  and  contact  with  other 
troops  has  taught  them  that  unusual  privileges  are  no  fair 
exchange  for  human  rights. 

Thanks  to  the  disaffection  of  the  Cossacks,  the  rioting  grew 
worse.  On  Saturday,  the  police  tried  to  segregate  the  workmen, 
of  the  factories  in  the  Viborg  district  and  on  the  islands  by 
guarding  all  the  bridges.  But  the  people  swarmed  across  the 
ice  and  forced  their  way  onto  the  Nevsky.  Sunday  was  a  day 
of  rest;  but  the  government  knew  that  the  lull  would  only 
intensify  the  turbulence  of  Monday.  So  they  sent  out  the  order 
to  prepare  the  garrison  for  the  declaration  of  martial  law.  It 
is  said  that  many  of  the  soldiers  argued  all  Sunday  night 
as  to   whether  or  not  they  would  fire  on  the  people. 


The  Revolt  67 

on  the  mob.  Suddenly  a  soldier  stepped  from 
the  ranks  and,  clubbing  his  rifle,  struck  down 
the  speaker;  and  the  greater  part  of  the  regi- 
ment seized  and  disarmed  the  other  officers.  A 
few  blocks  distant,  in  front  of  the  Artillery  Ar- 
senal on  the  Liteiny,  the  soldiers  of  the  Volyn- 
ian  Life-guards  had  shot  the  general  in  com- 
mand, and  practically  the  whole  regiment  had 
revolted.  They  were  now  preparing  for  a  de- 
fence and  were  negotiating  with  other  troops 
of  the  garrison  to  join  them.  This  probably 
explains  the  errand  of  the  excited  horsemen  I 
had  recently  seen  on  the  Voskresensky. 

After  lunch  I  ran  into  Hamilton  who  reported 
that  he  had  just  come  over  from  the  Myedveyd 
Hotel  and  that  he  had  seen  street-fighting  all 
through  the  intervening  part  of  town.  We  both 
had  business  on  the  Sergievskaya  near  the  Fon- 
tanka  Canal  and  agreed  to  go  together,  but  when 
we  came  to  the  Liteiny  (the  main  street  of  the 
district)  we  were  halted  by  riflery  and  machine- 
gun  fire.  A  real  battle  was  in  progress  between 
the  Volynians  at  the  Sergievskaya  and  the  loyal 
companies  of  the  Semenovsky  who  had  marched 
down  the  Kirochnaya  and  debouched  onto  the 
Liteiny  two  blocks  further  south.  The  insurg- 
ents had  hastily  thrown  together  a  barricade  of 
crates  and  boxes  from  the  Arsenal,  and  for  ef- 


68    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

feet  had  wheeled  out  five  field-guns,  which  ap- 
parently no  one  knew  how  to  use.  At  one  end 
of  the  barrier  they  had  left  a  gap  and  through  it 
were  sending  automobiles  with  attacking  parties 
against  the  enemy,  who  lay  or  knelt  in  the  open 
street  to  reply.  These  cars  had  riflemen  lying 
on  the  fenders  and  crouching  in  the  front  seats 
and  tonneaux,  the  chauffeurs  (usually  innocent 
neutrals)  being  the  only  ones  very  much  ex- 
posed. We  stood  in  the  mouth  of  the  Four- 
shtadskaya,  half-way  between  the  lines,  and 
watched  them  catapult  to  our  corner,  discharge 
a  broadside  at  the  enemy  and  swing  off  past 
us  into  shelter,  skidding  beautifully  on  the  hard 
snow.  Crowds  of  citizens  standing  in  the  pro- 
tection of  the  buildings  shouted  encouragement 
as  they  passed. 

Presently  we  crossed  by  an  alley  into  the  Ser- 
gievskaya  and  had  no  trouble  in  getting  to  with- 
in ten  yards  of  the  end  of  the  barricade.  Here 
the  crowds  of  spectators  were  especially  thick 
and  we  could  only  catch  glimpses  of  the  gallant 
defenders  at  their  work.  At  the  curb  beside  us, 
soldiers  were  climbing  into  motors  and  taking 
position  for  their  dash  down  the  Liteiny.  We 
could  see  no  wounded  but  on  the  sidewalk  were 
long  trails  of  fresh  blood.  These  led  to  a  court- 
yard, but  within  we  found  only  two  very  drunk- 


The  Eevolt  69 

en  soldiers.*  For  the  most  part  the  troops  and 
the  populace  were  quiet,  smiling  and  cheerful, 
much  more  animated  than  the  usual  Petrograd 
street-crowd,  but  far  from  riotous.  Shoppers 
would  insist  on  walking  along  the  sidewalks  be- 
tween the  opposing  forces, — generally  keeping 
close  to  the  buildings  as  a  concession  to  the  oc- 
casion,— but  entering  the  stores  and  transacting 
business  as  usual.  During  lulls  in  the  battle 
people  scurried  across  the  Liteiny  just  back  of 
the  barricade,  between  the  firing  squad  and  a 
line  of  crouching  reserves.  It  looked  so  easy 
I  suggested  to  Hamilton  that  we  cross  too, 
transact  our  business  and  then  return  for  the 
final  curtain  about  dark.  He  agreed,  but  other 
Americans  with  us  talked  so  aifectingly  of  bul- 
let wounds  and  the  ''dear  ones  at  home"  that  we 
gave  up  the  plan. 

Later  we  heard  the  details  of  the  Liteiny  bat- 
tle told  by  those  who  had  seen  it  from  Armour  *s 
windows,  six  stories  up  and  directly  above  the 
loyalist  position.  The  Semenovsky  contented 
themselves  with  firing  and  did  not  try  to  ad- 
vance nor  to  make  any  flank  attack.  Conse- 
quently casualties  were  few.  One  revolutionist, 
either  mad  or  drunk,  climbed  the  barricade  and 

*  This  was  the  only  drunkenness  I  saw  during  the  Revolu- 
tion.— J,  L.  H.,  Jr. 


70    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

with  gun  to  shoulder  walked  straight  up  the 
street-car  track  toward  the  enemy,  firing  as  he 
went.  At  a  hundred  paces  he  stopped,  emptied 
his  gun  and  stepped  over  into  a  doorway  to  re- 
load. When  he  appeared  again,  a  fusillade  of 
shots  sent  him  crumpling  to  the  snow.  Several 
spectators  left  niches  of  observation  and  unex- 
citedly  dragged  the  body  to  shelter.  Others 
presently  showed  the  same  indifference  to  fire, 
when  a  little  boy  who  ran  out  too  far  to  watch, 
had  his  leg  broken  by  a  stray  bullet.  No  one 
bothered,  though,  to  pick  up  the  frisky  little 
dog  who  played  too  near  the  Semenovsky  and 
was  shot.  These  casualties  and  a  half-dozen 
in  the  two  firing  lines  were  all  that  the  observ- 
ers reported. 

As  darkness  fell,  the  firing  stopped  as  if  by 
common  consent  and  the  Semenovsky  marched 
back  to  their  barracks.  Within  two  minutes  the 
Liteiny  was  swarming  with  people,  before  even 
the  insurgents  had  time  to  call  in  their  riflemen 
from  **the  trenches."  Huntington  and  I  joined 
the  exultant  throng  at  the  Fourshtadskaya  cor- 
ner and  with  them  passed  through  one  of  the 
gaps  in  the  barricade  into  revolutionary  terri- 
tory. The  District  Court  Building,  which  occu- 
pied a  full  block  of  frontage  just  beyond,  was  a 
roaring  furnace  of  flames.    As  we  stopped  to 


The  Revolt  71 

gaze,  the  fire  department  arrived,  and  the  brass- 
batted  captain  halted  uncertainly  to  ask  the  rev- 
olutionists what  he  would  be  allowed  to  do.  Ap- 
parently his  aid  was  rejected,  for  the  fire-carts 
drew  in  to  the  opposite  curb  and  the  firemen 
perched  idly  on  them,  watching  the  flaming  spec- 
tacle with  open-mouthed  admiration.  A  work- 
man told  us  that  the  building  had  contained  a 
political  prison  and  that  the  Military  Governor 
of  Petrograd  had  also  had  an  office  there. 

At  the  Second  Division  of  the  American  Em- 
bassy, which  adjoins  the  Artillery  Arsenal,  we 
learned  that  a  captain  and  twenty  loyal  men 
of  the  Volynians  had  arrived  by  way  of  the  back 
fence  and  were  either  guarding  the  Embassy  or 
hiding, — our  friends  could  not  tell  which.  The 
captain  was  telephoning  frantically  to  know 
what  he  should  do.  The  American  official  in 
charge  thought  that  the  building  might  be  at- 
tacked, since  it  had  once  been  the  Austrian  Em- 
bassy, and  decided  that  it  was  unsafe  for  any 
of  the  female  employes  to  continue  to  live  there. 
I  offered  my  room  at  the  Hotel  France  as  a  ref- 
uge for  four  or  five  women,  since  I  had  arranged 
to  live  with  Huntington  in  his  apartment  on  the 
Voskresensky.  It  had  become  more  riotous 
outside  with  the  coming  of  darkness,  and  there 
was  a  steady  fourth-of-July  fusillade  of  shots; 


72    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

but  we  sent  scouts  down  to  the  quays  and  they 
reported  that  all  seemed  quiet  along  the  river. 

Four  of  us  men  formed  a  convoy  and  we  start- 
ed for  the  hotel.  As  we  reached  the  quay  we 
heard  great  shouting  and  there  jolted  past  us 
two  big  motor  trucks  loaded  with  soldiers  and 
decorated  with  red  flags.  They  stopped  by  the 
Suvoroff  Monument  for  an  argument  and  then 
turned  across  the  Troitsky  Bridge  toward  the 
Fortress  of  Peter  and  Paul  and  the  turbulent 
Petersburg  side. 

We  left  the  quays  at  the  Hermitage  and  as  we 
cross  the  Millionaya,  saw  the  head  of  a  column 
of  troops  coming  out  of  the  Palace  Square. 
From  the  cheering  crowd  which  accompanied 
them  we  knew  that  they  were  revolutionists,  and 
McClelland  and  I  waited  on  the  sidewalk  while 
they  passed.  They  marched  in  perfect  order 
singing  the  Marseillaise,  and  the  sergeants  and 
corporals  who  commanded  them  were  equipped 
with  the  swords  and  in  some  cases  with  the 
field-glasses  of  officers.  A  civilian  told  us  that 
this  was  the  Pavlovsky  Regiment  of  the  Guard ; 
which  had  wavered  all  day  and  was  now  joining 
the  revolt.  The  crowd  exulted  over  the  new 
converts. 

As  we  crossed  the  Palace  Square,  we  saw  an- 
other dark  mass  of  troops  come  out  of  the  main 


The  Revolt  73 

gate  of  the  Winter  Palace  and  tarn  toward  the 
MiUionaya.  We  were  told  that  this  was  the 
Ismailovsky,  another  guard  regiment,  which 
had  f oUowed  the  example  of  the  Pavlovsky,  had 
disarmed  its  officers,  killed  a  few  of  them,  and 
then  had  held  a  dress-parade  in  the  great  court 
of  the  Winter  Palace  to  show  that  it  o^vned  the 
town. 

At  the  Hotel  France,  Whiffen  of  the  Associ- 
ated Press  told  me  that  the  Duma  had  been  ad- 
journed till  April  by  Imperial  Order;  but  that 
it  had  refused  to  go  home,  had  adopted  a  reso- 
lution declaring  the  present  ministry  over- 
thrown and  had  demanded  the  appointment  of 
another  having  the  confidence  of  the  people. 

On  our  way  home  we  caught  up  with  the  Pav- 
lovsky and  Ismailovsky,  which  had  now  taken 
possession  of  the  Marsovo  Pole.  A  sub-lieuten- 
ant in  charge  of  a  cordon  on  the  Palace  Quay 
courteously  told  us  that  all  this  part  of  the  city 
was  in  the  hands  of  Nashi"  (''Our  men")  and 
that  we  need  fear  nothing.  We  left  Miles  at  the 
Second  Division,  stopped  a  minute  to  watch  a 
crowd  breaking  into  a  bakery,  passed  again 
through  the  barricade  where  the  soldiers  were 
sitting  around  camp-fires,  and  then  called  at  our 
Embassy  to  tell  the  Ambassador  all  we  had  seen 
and  heard. 


74    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

The  Amhassador  had  heard  that  Rodzianko, 
president  of  the  Duma,  country  gentleman  of 
great  wealth  and  brilliant  orator,  was  to  be  the 
overshadowing  figure  of  the  revolution ;  that  the 
office  of  the  secret  police  had  been  sacked  and 
all  its  records  destroyed;  and  that  all  officers 
were  being  forcibly  disarmed.  He  had  been 
called  up  on  the  telephone  by  a  lady  who  had 
been  present  at  the  death  of  an  officer  killed  by 
soldiers  for  refusing  to  give  up  his  sword. 

When  we  got  home  to  Huntington's  apart- 
ment we  found  that  the  cook  was  feeding  three 
soldiers  in  the  kitchen.  They  were  a  fine  trio 
of  broad-chested  youngsters,  who  said  that  they 
were  strangers  in  Petrograd,  southerners  of  the 
Volynian  regiment  which  had  been  the  first  to 
revolt.  The  Semenovsky  now  have  possession 
of  their  barracks  so  they  think  it  wisest  not  to 
go  home ;  furthermore  the  police  are  coming  out 
of  their  hiding-places  under  cover  of  darkness 
and  are  shooting  soldiers  indiscriminately.  But 
they  are  not  worried  for  they  know  that  the 
Semenovsky  are  determined  to  join  the  revolu- 
tion to-morrow  morning.  We  let  them  sleep  in 
the  kitchen,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

With  the  Duma,  the  entire  Petrograd  garri- 
son and  the  people  working  together,  this  should 
be  a  real  revolution. 


The  Revolt  75 

Tuesday,  March  13.  The  first  thing  I  saw  ^jq^ 
from  the  window  this  morning  was  a  very  an- 
gry soldier  levelling  his  gun  at  some  one  just 
out  of  my  range  of  vision,  and  fingering  the 
trigger  ominously.  He  was  speaking  rapidly 
and  furiously.  Fortunately  he  cooled  off  with- 
out firing.  Next  I  saw  two  civilians  dragging 
machine  guns  along  the  opposite  sidewalk. 

The  revolutionists  are  guarding  this  building 
as  if  it  were  a  treasury.  Varia,  the  cook,  says 
that  several  generals  who  are  on  the  blacklist 
of  the  Revolution  live  here,  especially  a  Gen. 
Stroukoff  who  owns  a  factory  and  treats  his 
workmen  xevj  badly.  He  is  supposed  to  be  hid- 
ing in  his  apartment  and  the  betting  is  that  he 
will  never  get  out  alive. 

Yesterday  was  the  day  of  revolting  troops. 
Every  regiment  of  the  garrison  except  one 
joined  the  revolt  and  this  morning  the  Semen- 
ovsk}^  have  "come  into  camp  and  promised  to 
be  good  Indians."  Some  one  told  me  at  the 
Embassy  last  night  that  he  had  seen  two  or 
three  thousand  Cossacks  riding  out  quietly  to- 
ward the  southern  suburbs,  apparently  without 
a  single  ounce  of  fight  left  in  them.  Petrograd 
is  absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the  uprisen  sol- 
diers and  workmen. 

To-day  begins  the  long-needed  house-clean- 


76    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

ing  and  the  police  are  the  first  refuse  to  be 
swept  out.  Many  of  them  are  resisting  and 
meeting  violent  deaths.  One  shot  a  soldier  on 
our  comer  this  morning  and  was  promptly  bay- 
oneted and  beheaded,  much  to  the  horror  of  our 
little  servant  girl  who  chanced  to  be  passing. 
They  are  tremendously  hated,  these  police,  for 
they  are  all  husky  fighting  men  who  are  needed 
at  the  front  but  instead  stay  at  home  and  cruelly 
oppress  the  people.  Now  they  seem  to  be  be- 
wildered ;  they  hide  in  apartments  and  on  roofs 
and  take  pot-shots  at  soldiers  and  have  to  be 
laboriously  captured  or  killed  outright. 

Every  police  station  in  the  city  has  been  raid- 
ed to-day  and  all  the  records  thrown  out  of  the 
windows  and  burned.  I  watched  the  wrecking 
of  one  almost  next  door  to  the  American  Em- 
bassy, and  saw  old  identification  books  marked 
1893  blazing  away  on  the  top  of  the  pyre.  If  by 
some  miracle  the  old  order  should  be  restored, 
the  people  at  least  will  have  the  satisfaction  of 
knowing  that  these  masses  of  accumulated 
blackmail  are  gone  forever. 

In  the  various  sackings  of  government  stores, 
great  quantities  of  goods  and  provisions  were 
found  which  the  government  had  claimed  were 
entirely  exhausted.  This  greatly  exasperated 
the  people.    It  is  reported  that  the  supply  of 


The  Revolt  77 

many  articles  of  food  had  been  purposely  cur- 
tailed by  government  officials  for  grafting  pur- 
poses. Our  cook  has  bought  from  soldiers  at 
ridiculously  low  prices  all  sorts  of  supplies, 
bolts  of  cloth,  flour,  etc.,  etc.,  which  were  taken 
from  government  stores  that  had  been  refusing 
them  to  the  people  for  months. 

The  first  Socialist  Manifesto  is  out;  it  urges 
the  continuance  of  the  war,  the  preservation  of 
law  and  order  among  the  people,  of  discipline 
among  the  troops,  and  the  rapid  forming  of  a 
provisional  government. 

When  I  crossed  the  Liteiny  this  morning  on 
my  way  to  work  I  saw  soldiers  shooting  up  the 
Panteleimonskaya  toward  the  Preobrajensky 
Church.  I  went  to  within  a  few  yards  of  them 
but  could  not  find  out  who  or  where  the  enemy 
were.  They  seemed  much  in  earnest,  though, 
stepping  forward  a  dozen  at  a  time  and  firing 
all  five  shots  before  retiring  to  shelter. 

At  the  Sergievskaya  barricade  I  noted  an  au- 
tomobile checker  directing  the  movement  of 
cars.  The  Revolutionists  have  commandeered 
all  the  motors  in  the  city,  have  decked  them  with 
red  flags  and  are  using  them  for  scouting  and 
organisation  purposes.  These  machines  are 
often  so  loaded  with  soldiers  that  even  the  run- 
ning boards   are   crowded   and  two   outposts 


78    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

drape  themselves  on  the  front  fenders.  Limou- 
sine cars  are  peaceful  enough  in  appearance  at 
a  distance,  but  as  they  approach  one  sees  bay- 
onets and  rifle  barrels  protruding  from  the  win- 
dows. There  is  a  responsible  man  in  each  one 
of  these  cars,  who  reports  at  intervals  to  a  des- 
ignated checker. 

I  called  at  the  Second  Division  of  the  Em- 
bassy and  learned  that  its  brave  garrison  of 
twenty  refugees  had  departed.  At  about  three 
last  night  some  one  from  headquarters  tele- 
phoned their  captain  to  take  them  back  to  bar- 
racks, as  all  was  forgiven  and  they  would  be 
supplied  with  a  good  meal  and  warm  beds.  They 
went,  and  have  not  returned. 

A  crowd  passed  the  Embassy  early  this  after- 
noon waving  red  banners  and  singing  the  Mar- 
seillaise. Eight  in  front  of  the  building  they 
captured  an  officer  but  he  made  a  satisfactory 
explanation  and  they  let  him  go.  Two  or  three 
soldiers  pointed  guns  at  people  watching  them 
from  the  Embassy  windows.  Thanks  to  these 
fool  police,  the  revolution  objects  to  being 
watched  from  windows  and  it's  unsafe  to  persist 
in  the  practice. 

Not  long  after  the  aforementioned  crowd 
passed,  it  was  discovered  that  policemen  were 
hidden  in  the  sixth-story  attic  of  an  apartment 


The  Revolt  79 

building  on  the  Sergievskaya  just  east  of  the 
Voskresensky  and  were  firing  out  of  two  back 
windows  at  soldiers  on  the  latter  street  and  on 
the  Fourshtadskaya.     Sharpshooters  began  to 
reply  from  the  corner  near  the  Embassy;  the 
crowd  stood  in  a  semicircle  right  behind  them 
and   watched,   myself    among   them.      People 
walked  placidly  along  the  sidewalks   of  both 
streets,  the  fire  of  the  soldiery  often  going  di- 
rectly over  their  heads ;  once  I  saw  the  concus- 
sion knock  a  man's  hat  off.    The  wall  around 
the  two  windows  was  whitewashed  and  show  a 
puff  of  plaster  whenever  it  was  hit  so  we  could 
keep  track  of  the  marksmanship.    Occasionally 
a  rifle-barrel  would  appear  from  the  attic  with- 
in and  its  recoil  would  show  that  the  police  were 
answering,  but  we  could  see  no  results.     Once 
a  motor-load  of  soldiers  sped  by  and  the  men 
on  the  running-boards  fired  up  in  the  general 
direction  of  the  enemy,  more  picturesquely  than 
effectively.     Then  of  a  sudden  an  arm  with  a 
sword  was  thrust  out  the  window  and  waved  in 
a  circle.    A  soldier  right  beside  me  raised  his 
rifle  to  aim  at  it,  but  was  stopped  by  a  cry  of 
''Nashi,  nashi!'*   ("Ours!");  another  further 
down  the  street  did  fire,  but  a  comrade  took  a 
flying  leap  at  him  and  sent  him  sprawling.    Ob- 
viously the  stronghold  was  captured.    I  went 


80    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

around  to  the  front  of  the  building  and  heard 
that  five  policemen  had  been  found  there,  but 
after  some  waiting  I  abandoned  hope  of  see- 
ing them  or  their  corpses  and  departed. 

Then  Piatt,  Turner  and  I  went  up  to  the 
Duma.  The  Shpalernaya  was  a  wild  concourse 
of  disorganised  troops  and  populace,  all  happy 
and  good-natured.  We  could  see  that  they  were 
unloading  great  trucks  of  provisions  into  the 
main  entrance  of  the  Tauride  Palace,  as  if  the 
national  assembly  expected  to  be  besieged. 
Presently  we  heard  cheering  and  a  squad  of  sol- 
diers leading  some  prisoners  turned  into  the 
driveway  of  the  palace.  This  was  the  first  in- 
dication we  had  had  that  any  quarter  was  being 
given ;  the  rumour  was  that  all  policemen  were 
being  exterminated  ruthlessly.  It  seemed  rather 
decent  to  give  these  hated  enemies  even  a  drum- 
head court-martial. 

In  our  eagerness  to  see  the  reception  of  these 
prisoners  at  the  Duma  itself,  we  scrambled  over 
the  low  iron  fence  into  the  garden  and  started 
climbing  snowdrifts  to  reach  the  main  portico. 
A  sentinel  hailed  us  and  indicated,  by  the  sim- 
ple method  of  aiming  his  gun  at  us,  that  we 
were  not  wanted.  All  guns  are  loaded  these 
days  and  they  sometimes  go  off  unexpectedly. 


The  Revolt  81 

So  we  did  not  stop  to  identify  ourselves  but 
withdrew  to  the  street  side  of  the  fence. 

Presently  we  saw  a  large  group  of  prisoners 
led  from  a  side  entrance  under  heavy  guard  and 
I  followed  in  the  crowd  and  examined  them  care- 
fully. There  were  a  few  policemen  in  their 
black  uniforms,  a  scattering  of  real  or  pretend- 
ed soldiers,  a  fork-bearded  old  Father  Abraham 
with  a  half-dozen  other  Jews,  and  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  dvorniks  (janitors)  and  doormen; 
but  the  great  bulk  were  broad-shouldered  thugs 
only  to  be  identified  as  policemen  out  of  uni- 
form. Some  were  heavily  bandaged  and  had  to 
be  dragged  along.  A  few  fidgeted  nervously 
and  hung  back,  but  most  were  surprisingly  stol- 
id. Their  escort  was  not  numerically  strong, 
and  the  first  shout  of  the  crowd  sounded  omi- 
nous. But  not  a  hand  was  raised  against  them; 
the  crowd  jeered  quite  good-humouredly.  Soon 
they  turned  off  the  Shpalernaya  through  a  high 
wooden  gate  beside  a  warehouse,  where  soldiers 
stopped  the  crowd.  I  waited  outside  a  few 
minutes  expecting,  yet  dreading,  to  hear  volley- 
fire.  The  death  of  the  policeman  on  our  cor- 
ner this  morning  and  the  customary  penalty  of 
sniping  seemed  to  justify  the  expectation.  But 
I  now  believe  they  were  taken  to  some  extem- 
porised prison. 


82    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

Other  crowds  of  prisoners  were  led  by,  but 
for  the  most  part  were  turned  back  from  the 
Duma  by  mounted  Cossacks  and  directed 
straight  into  the  aforementioned  gate.  Pres- 
ently we  heard  cheering  and  through  a  path 
opened  in  the  crowd  there  came  at  a  dog-trot 
four  diminutive  students,  each  towering  about 
four-feet-six  in  stature  and  carrying  a  rifle  at 
least  five-feet-six,  surrounding  a  great  hulk  of  a 
soldier  whose  height  seemed  about  six-feet-six, 
• — the  most  joyous  guard  and  the  most  humili- 
ated and  cowed  prisoner  that  we  saw. 

The  roadway  was  a  kaleidoscope  of  soldiers, 
armed  and  unarmed,  civilians,  mounted  Cos- 
sacks, automobiles  full  of  red-cross  nurses  and 
of  uniformed  students,  and  trucks  packed  tight 
with  humanity  and  bristling  with  bayonets  and 
red  flags.  At  the  corner  of  the  Potemkinskaya 
we  were  passed  by  a  speeding  motor  from  which 
a  student  threw  hand-bills;  but  we  were  not 
quick  enough  to  get  one  although  we  scrambled 
for  them  manfully  with  soldiers  and  workmen. 

At  the  Embassy  corner  we  saw  flashes  of  rifle- 
fire  in  at  least  two  directions,  and  one  shot 
passed  so  near  us  that  we  heard  it  whistle.  It 
was  gi'owing  dark  and  we  could  not  make  out 
who  were  skirmishing,  but  the  thought  surged 
in  upon  us  that  we  might  be  taken  for  police- 


The  Revolt  83 

men.  We  were  near  home  and  hy  unanimous 
consent  adjourned  for  the  day.  The  streets  of 
this  city  are  no  place  for  an  innocent  bystander 
to-night. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  NEWS  BULLETINS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

After  two  days  without  newspapers,  Petro- 
grad  once  more  had  a  news  service  on  Tuesday 
evening.  It  took  the  form  of  an  official  bulletin, 
some  copies  of  which  were  pasted  up  in  promi- 
nent places  throughout  the  city,  w^iile  others 
were  thrown  to  the  crowd  from  automobiles. 
This  bulletin  was  edited  and  signed  by  a  so- 
called  Committee  of  Petrograd  Journalists  and 
was  printed  in  the  shops  of  the  Novoye  Vremya, 
the  Bourse  Gazette,  the  Russkaya  Volya,  and 
other  newspapers.  It  took  up  about  two-thirds 
of  a  single  newspaper  sheet  of  stock  size.  At 
the  top  was  a  title  in  scare-head  type  '^Izvyes- 
tia"  (News),  followed  by  the  statement  in  heavy 
type, ' '  The  newspapers  will  not  appear.  Events 
are  occurring  too  rapidly.  The  people  have  a 
right  to  know  what  is  happening. ' ' 

The  last  sentence  alone  was  a  new  charter 
of  liberty  for  Russia.  The  items  of  the  first 
bulletin,  which  I  insert  here  in  their  entirety, 
are  in  themselves  a  short  history  of  the  Revolu- 
tion: 

84 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    85 

Dissolution  of  the  Imperial  Duma 

*'0n  the  basis  of  Chapter  Ninety-Nine  of  the 
Fundamental  Imperial  Law  it  is  commanded : 

"The  sitting  of  the  Imperial  Duma  and  Im- 
perial Council  is  adjourned  the  26th  of  Febru- 
ary (Sunday,  March  11  ^)  of  this  year  and  the 
date  of  its  reconvening  is  designated  for  not 
later  than  April,  1917,  in  dependence  upon  ex- 
traordinary circumstances. 

*'The  Directing  Senate  will  not  stop  in  the 
fulfillment  of  the  necessary  arrangements. 

"Under  the  actual  signature  of  the  own 
hand  of  his  imperial  majesty 

Nikolas. 

"February  27  (March  12),  1917 

"At  the  Tsar's  Headquarters,  February  25 
(March  10). 

' '  Countersigned :  President  of  the  Council  of 
Ministers,  Prince  Nikolas  Golitzyn." 


Decision  of  the  Imperial  Duma 

"The  elder  council,^  assembled  in  extraordi- 
nary session  and  informed  of  the  ukase  and  dis- 
solution, has  ordained: 

"The  Imperial  Duma  will  not  separate. 
All  deputies  will  remain  in  their  places." 

*A11  dates  used  in  the  bulletin  are  Old  Style,  thirteen  days 
behind  New  Style.  For  the  sake  of  clearness,  I  have  inserted 
in  parentheses  the  dates  according  to  our  own  calendar. 

*  Committee  of  party  leaders. 


86    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 


Uprising  of  the  Troops 

On  February  27  (Monday,  March  12),  there 
passed  over  to  the  revolutionary  people  the 
following  military  units :  Volynian,  Preobrajen- 
sky,  Litovsky,  Keksholmsky,  and  Sapper  regi- 
ments. 

On  the  side  of  the  revolutionary  people  are 
nearly  25,000  from  the  military  ranks. 


Delegation  of  Revolutionary  Troops  at  the 
Duma 

About  1  p.  M.  a  delegation  from  25,000  revolt- 
ing soldiers  appeared  at  the  Imperial  Duma  to 
inquire  about  the  position  occupied  by  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people. 

M.  V.  Rodzianko  transmitted  to  the  delegation 
the  following  unanimously-adopted  resolution 
of  the  elder  council : 

* '  The  basic  watchword  of  the  moment  shines 
out  as  the  abolition  of  the  old  authority  and  the 
substitution  for  it  of  the  new.  In  the  act  of 
recognising  this,  the  Imperial  Duma  will  take  a 
lively  part,  but  for  this  before  all  else,  order 
and  quiet  are  indispensable. ' ' 

At  the  same  time  the  president  of  the  Im- 
perial Duma  delivered  to  the  delegates  the  texts 
of  telegrams  despatched  to  the  Tsar  at  Head- 
quarters, to  chief  of  staff  General  Alexeieff  and 
to  the  three  generals  in  chief  command  at  the 
front. 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    87 


First  Telegeam  of  M.  V.  Rodzianko  to  the 
Tsar 

On  February  26  (Sunday,  March  11),  the 
president  of  the  Imperial  Duma  despatched  to 
the  headquarters  of  the  Tsar  a  telegram  of  the 
following  tenor : — 

''The  situation  is  serious.  In  the  capital  is 
anarchy.  The  government  is  paralysed.  Trans- 
portation, the  supply  of  provisions  and  fuel 
have  come  to  complete  disorder.  Dissatisfac- 
tion is  growing  general.  On  the  streets  is  oc- 
curring disorderly  shooting.  This  is  partly 
troops  shooting  one  another.  It  is  indispensa- 
ble to  entrust  to  a  person  having  the  confidence 
of  the  countiy  the  formation  of  a  new  minis- 
try. It  is  impossible  to  hesitate.  Every  delay 
is  equally  fatal.  I  pray  God  that  at  this  hour 
the  responsibility  does  not  fall  on  the  Crowned 
Head." 


Telegrams  of  M.  V.  Rodzianko  to  the  Chief 
Commanders  at  the  Fronts 

On  the  same  day,  February  26,  the  president 
of  the  Imperial  Duma  quoted  by  telegraph  to 
the  commanders  of  all  fronts  the  above  men- 
tioned telegram,  adding  a  request  that  they  per- 
sonally justify  to  the  Tsar  the  changed  attitude 
of  the  president  of  the  Imperial  Duma. 


88    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 


Answering  Telegrams  of  Brusilofp  and 

RUZSKY 

General  Brusiloff  answered:  *'Your  telegram 
received.  I  have  done  my  duty  before  the  coun- 
try and  the  Tsar." 

The  telegram  of  General  Ruzsky  reads:  '*I 
have  fulfilled  my  commission." 


Second  Telegram  of  the  President  of  Imperial 
Duma  to  the  Tsar 

On  Februaiy  27  (Monday,  March  12),  in  the 
morning  the  President  of  the  Imperial  Duma 
addressed  the  Tsar  in  a  second  telegram  of  the 
following  context : 

' '  The  situation  is  becoming  worse.  It  is  nec- 
essary to  take  measures  quickly,  for  to-morrow 
will  be  too  late.  The  final  hour  has  come,  when 
the  fate  of  the  country  and  the  dynasty  will  be 
decided." 


The  Revolutionary  Army  at  the  ImperiaIj 
Duma 

About  2  p.  M.  a  strong  detachment  of  the  revo- 
lutionary army,  escorted  by  the  armed  popu- 
lace, approached  the  building  of  the  Imperial 
Duma.  There  went  out  to  welcome  the  revo- 
lutionary army  members  of  the  Imperial  Duma, 


Kews  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    89 

— N.  S.  Chkheidze,  A.  F.  Kerensky,  A.  I.  Skobe- 
leff  and  many  others.  The  appearance  of  the 
deputies  and  above  all  of  those  especially  popu- 
lar with  the  masses,  was  welcomed  with  noisy 
''hurrahs."  Chkheidze,  Kerensky  and  Skobe- 
leff  stepped  forward  and  addressed  the  troops. 
The  people,  having  conducted  the  revolted 
soldiers,  relieved  the  sentinels  at  the  Tauride 
Palace,  assembled  for  themselves  the  guard 
over  the  Imperial  Duma,  took  possession  of  the 
post  and  telegraph  office  at  the  Duma  building 
and  took  over  the  time  and  telephone  apparatus. 


Session  of  the  Impeeial  Duma 

At  2 :30  p.  M.  in  the  Duma  Hall, '  under  the 
presidency  of  M.  V.  Rodzianko,  was  held  a  con- 
ference of  members  of  the  Imperial  Duma.  In 
the  deliberation  was  brought  up  the  question 
of  the  organization  of  a  temporary  committee 
for  keeping  order  in  Petrograd  and  for  inter- 
course with  different  institutions  and  persons. 
In  the  opinion  of  the  numerous  assembly,  the 
choice  of  a  temporary  committee  should  be  en- 
trusted to  the  elder  council  to  work  out. 

At  the  end  of  the  meeting  of  the  Imperial 
Duma  there  was  held  in  the  office  of  M.  V.  Rod- 
zianko a  session  of  the  elder  council  at  which 
took  place  an  election  of  members  for  this  Tem- 
porary Committee. 


90    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

Committee  of  the  Imperial  Duma  for  the  Es- 
tablishment OF  Order  in  Petrograd  and 
FOR  Intercourse  with  Institutions  and 
Persons.  In  the  Composition  of  the  Tem- 
porary Committee  Were  ; 

1.  m.  v.  rodzianko 

2.  N.  V.  Nekrasoff 

3.  A.  I.  KONOVALOFF 

4.  I.  I.  Dmitriukofp 

5.  A.  F  Kerensky 

6.  N.  S.  Chkheidze 

7.  V.  V.  Shulgin 

8.  S.  I.  Shidlovsky 

9.  P.  N.  MiLIUKOFF 

10.  M.  A.  Karauloff 

11.  V.  N.  LVOFF 

12.  V.  A.  Rjevsky 


Arrest  op  the  President  op  the  Council  op 

THE  Empire 

About  5:30  p.m.  (Monday,  March  12)  there 
was  brought  to  the  Imperial  Duma,  under  a 
strong  convoy  of  the  revolutionary  populace, 
the  president  of  the  Council  of  the  Empire,  for- 
mer Minister  of  Justice  I.  G.  Shcheglovitoff. 

After  a  short  conference,  by  arrangement  of 
members  of  the  Temporary  Committee,  Shche- 
glovitoff was  temporarily  placed  under  a  strong 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    91 

guard  in  the  Ministerial  Pavilion  of  the  Tauride 
Palace. 


Capture  of  the  Aesenal  and  Chief  Artillery 
Headquarters 

This  morning  the  arsenal  and  chief  artillery 
office  were  captured  after  a  short  struggle  by 
the  troops  gone  over  to  the  revolutionary  popu- 
lace. They  killed  General  Matusoff  in  command 
of  the  artillery  warehouse.  The  arsenal  and 
offices  were  put  under  a  guard  of  revolution- 
ists. 


Capture  of  the  " Crosses''  and  Liberation  of 
THE  Politicals 

To-day  the  Viborg  solitary-confinement 
prison  "The  Crosses"  was  captured  by  a 
strong  force  of  soldiers  and  revolutionary  pop- 
ulace after  a  short  struggle.  All  political  pris- 
oners were  released;  among  the  number  liber- 
ated were  the  labor  group  of  the  War  Industry 
Committee;  and  also  Khrustaleff-Nosar. 

They  also  captured  the  house  of  preliminary 
confinement  and  the  women's  prison  (Litovsky 
stronghold). 


The  Fall  of  the  Fortress  of  Peter  and  Paul 

Into  the  hands  of  the  rebellious  troops  and 
the  revolutionary  populace  fell  also  the  Port- 
ress of  Peter  and  Paul,  which  was  transformed 


92    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

into  the  head  base  of  the  revolutionary  army. 
All  political  prisoners  were  released  from  the 
casemates  and  set  at  liberty. 


Destruction  of  the  Security  Division 

The  Security  Division  *  was  destroyed  and 
burned  down.  All  archives  and  political  mat- 
ters were  destroyed. 


Resignation  of  Premier  Golitzin 

About  1  p.  M.  the  President  of  the  Council  of 
Ministers  called  by  telephone  Duma  President 
Rodzianko  and  offered  him  his  resignation. 
According  to  rumor  he  gave  also  the  resigna- 
tions of  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  with 
the  exception  of  Protopopoff. 

During  the  day  the  revolutionists  searched 
the  houses  of  the  old  members  of  the  cabinet. 
They  could  not  arrest  the  ministers  because 
none  of  the  latter  were  found  at  home. 


Council  of  Workmen's  Deputies 

During  the  day,  there  assembled  in  the  prem- 
ises of  the  Duma  the  representatives  of  the 
workmen,  soldiers,  and  some  of  the  socialist 
societies.  They  organised  a  Council  of  Work- 
men's Deputies,  and  decided  to  address  an  ap- 
peal to  the  populace. 

*  The  Secret  Police. 


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News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    93 

The  Appeal  op  the  "Workmen's  Deputies 

The  Council  of  Workmen 's  Deputies  ordered 
that  an  appeal  should  be  addressed  to  the  pop- 
ulace as  follows : 

Citizens,  the  representatives  of  the  laborers 
and  the  soldiers  and  of  the  population  of 
Petrograd,  assembled  in  the  Duma,  declare  that 
the  first  meeting  of  their  representatives  will 
be  held  to-day  at  7 :00  p.  m.,  in  the  premises  of 
the  Duma.  AH  the  military  units  which  have 
come  to  the  side  of  the  people  are  to  choose  one 
representative  from  each  company.  The  fac- 
tories are  to  elect  their  deputies,  one  for  each 
thousand  of  laborers.  Such  factories  as  have 
less  than  one  thousand  laborers  may  elect  one 
deputy  each. 


From  the  Temporary  Committee  of  the  Coun- 
cil OF  Workmen's  Deputies 

Citizens,  the  soldiers  who  took  the  part  of  the 
people  have  been  in  the  streets  since  morning 
and  are  very  hungry.  The  Council  of  Work- 
men's Deputies  and  of  the  Population  are  try- 
ing their  best  to  feed  the  soldiers;  but  to  or- 
ganise the  food  supply  is  not  so  easy.  There- 
fore the  Council  appeals  to  you  citizens  with 
the  request  to  feed  the  soldiers  with  all  that  you 
can  give  them. 

(Signed)  Temporary  Executive  Committee 
OF  the  Council  of  Workmen's 
Deputies,  27th  of  February,  1917. 


94   A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

The  following  items,  together  with  long  ver- 
batim reports  of  the  eloquent  appeals  of  Rod- 
zianko,  Miliukoff  and  Kerensky  to  the  various 
delegations  visiting  the  Duma,  make  up  the 
News  Bulletin  for  Tuesday,  March  13 : 


Pkoblems  op  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Duma 

The  Temporary  Committee  of  the  Duma  has 
defined  its  problems  in  the  following  way : 

The  Duma  aims  to  establish  a  bond  between 
officers  and  the  lower  ranks.  It  feels  the  ur- 
gent necessity  of  organising  the  military 
masses ;  the  progress  has  been  better  than  was 
expected,  but  there  is  still  no  organisation. 
Events  are  happening  too  rapidly. 

Therefore  officers  are  invited  to  show  all 
possible  co-operation  with  the  Imperial  Duma 
in  its  heavy  labor. 

Order  has  so  far  been  maintained  by  patrols 
appointed  by  the  Military  Committee  of  the 
Duma  and  by  armed  men  in  automobiles. 

All  possible  steps  are  being  taken  to  protect 
the  Arsenal  and  the  mint  in  the  Peter-Paul 
Fortress.  Hostile  acts  against  the  fortress  are 
undesirable.  All  political  prisoners  who  have 
hitherto  languished  in  the  casemates,  and  nine- 
teen soldiers  who  were  arrested  in  the  last  few 
days,  have  been  liberated. 

Notwithstanding  profound  differences  of  po- 
litical and  social  ideals,  the  members  of  the 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    95 

Duma,  having  accomplished  the  formation  of  a 
Temporary  Committee  at  the  present  difficult 
moment,  have  reached  complete  harmony 
among  themselves.  Before  them  and  others 
stands  the  pressing  task  of  organising  an  ele- 
mental popular  movement. 

The  danger  of  disorganisation  is  likewise  un- 
derstood by  all. 

The  slogan  of  the  moment  is  ''Citizens,  or- 
ganise. In  organisation  is  salvation  and 
strength.  Obey  the  Temporary  Committee  of 
the  Duma.*' 


The  Revolutionary  Army 

The  number  of  revolting  military  units  is 
growing  from  hour  to  hour.  We  can  say  with 
certainty  that  nearly  the  whole  Petrograd  gar- 
rison, with  a  few  exceptions,  is  now  on  the  side 
of  the  revolutionists.  Some  regiments  joined 
the  revolutionary  camp  in  their  entirety,  led 
by  their  officers, — among  this  number  the 
Preobrajensky  regiment. 

Yesterday  there  were  only  a  few  officers  on 
the  side  of  the  Revolution;  to-day  there  are 
many  of  them, — now  ensigns,  now  sub-lieuten- 
ants, lieutenants,  captains,  and  even  generals.^ 

The  whole  organisation  of  the  new  army  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  commander  of  the  Petrograd 
garrison,  Colonel  of  the  General  Staff  and  Mem- 
ber of  the  Duma,  B.  A.  Engelhardt. 

Every  minute  new  military  units  arrive  at 
the   Tauride   Palace.     Some   regiments   come 


96    A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

with  flying  flags  and  music,  headed  by  their 
commanders. 

In  the  Ekaterinsky  hall  of  the  palace  the  dif- 
ferent military  units  are  formed  into  battalions. 
They  receive  ammunition,  and  are  sent  to  dif- 
ferent parts  of  town,  in  conformation  with  an 
established  plan. 

All  the  orders  are  given  in  writing  in  the 
name  of  the  commander  of  the  Petrograd  gar- 
rison, Colonel  Engelhardt. 


The  Arrested 

The  Ministerial  Pavilion  of  the  Tauride  Pal- 
ace is  filled  to  overflowing  with  prisoners  of 
high  ranks. 

Besides  I.  Gr.  Shcheglovitoff,  who  was  ar- 
rested on  the  27th  of  February  (March  12),  the 
following  were  brought  in  under  guard  at  dif- 
ferent periods  of  the  day: 

Former  President  of  the  Council  of  the  Min- 
isters B.  V.  Stiirmer; 

Former  Assistant  to  the  Minister  of  Internal 
Affairs  Protopopoff;* 

Lieutenant-General  P.  G.  Kurloff ; 

Ex-Minister  of  Public  Health  G.  E.  Rein;  ^ 

Member  of  the  Council  of  the  Empire  Shir- 
insky  Shaklmiatoff ; 

The  very  well-known  general,  M.  C.  Komisa- 
roff; 

*  Not  the  famous  Protopopoff. 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    97 

Assistant  Minister  of  Ways  of  Conununica- 
tion  I.  P.  Borisoff; 

Chief  of  the  Eailway  Department  S.  B.  Boga- 
sheff; 

Head    of    the    General    Office    of    Military 
Schools,  General  Zabelin ; 

Chief  of  Police  of  Petrograd,  Major-General 
Balk; 

Chief  of  the  Military  Medical  Academy,  Gen- 
eral Makavaeff ; 

Vice-Admiral  Kartseff; 

Admiral  Girse; 
and  a  number  of  lesser  employees  of  the  ad- 
ministration and  police. 


Latest  News 

The  entire  chancery  of  the  Preobrajensky 
regiment,  with  all  their  archives,  was  brought 
over  to  the  Duma. 

The  fourth  Strelkovi,  his  Majesty's  regiment, 
which  is  stationed  at  Tsarskoe  Selo,  has  come 
over  to  the  side  of  the  people,  and  at  4  o'clock 
marched  to  the  Tauride  Palace. 

At  the  Finland  Eailway  Station  there  arrived 
three  packets  addressed  to  the  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs.  These  packets  were  delivered  to 
the  Duma  and  turned  over  to  P.  N.  Miliukoff. 

The  military  units  ordered  by  the  old  govern- 
ment from  Strelna  came  over  to  the  side  of  the 
revolution  and  proceeded  to  the  Duma. 

A  revolutionary  regiment  has  taken  posses- 


98   A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

sion  of  the  Ministry  of  Ways  of  Communica- 
tion. 

At  three  o'clock  there  arrived  at  the  Duma  a 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  General  Staff,  bringing 
a  packet  from  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff 
addressed  to  the  President  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Duma,  M.  V.  Rodzianko. 

V.  A.  Maklakoff  has  taken  possession  of  the 
Circuit  Court  with  a  special  patrol.  On  his  nao- 
tion  the  Court  will  continue  its  functions  begin- 
ning to-morrow  morning. 

At  four  o  'clock  p.  m.  there  arrived  at  the 
Duma  the  entire  student  body  of  the  Military 
Medical  Academy.  At  the  Military  Medical 
Academy  itself  a  conference  of  professors  is 
now  being  held  to  debate  the  events  which  are 
happening. 

At  two  o'clock  p.  M.  a  member  of  the  Duma, 
the  priest  Popoff  II,  blessed  the  Revolutionary 
Army,  with  a  crucifix  in  his  hands. 

*'God  grant,"  said  the  clergyman,  ''that  this 
day  be  memorable  forever  and  ever.'* 


Siberian  Regiments 

This  morning  two  Siberian  regiments  arrived 
at  the  Nikolaieff  Railway  Station.  Delegates 
from  these  regiments  presented  themselves  at 
11  o'clock  at  the  Tauride  and  offered  their 
services  to  the  Temporary  Committee  of  the 
Duma.  Their  offer  was  accepted  with  enthusi- 
asm. 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    99 


Teanquillity  of  the  Railway  Lines 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma  has 
received  an  official  statement  that  the  railway 
between  Moscow  and  Petrograd  is  running 
normally. 


Opening  of  the  Banks 

A  conference  of  directors  of  banks  and  pri- 
vate credit  institutions  has  decided,  in  view  of 
the  tranquillity  of  the  population,  to  open  all 
the  banks. 


Organisation  of  the  City  Militia 

The  temporary  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Duma  ordered  that  Mr.  M.  A.  Krizanovski, 
member  of  the  City  Duma,  organise  the  Militia. 
For  this  purpose  there  was  opened  on  the  28th 
day  of  February  at  8  o  'clock  p.  m.  in  the  prem- 
ises of  the  City  Hall,  an  enrollment  list  for 
students  of  all  the  High  Schools  of  Petrograd 
who  would  like  to  join  the  City  Militia.  The 
students  were  asked  to  appear  with  their  High 
School  certificates  or  other  documents,  to  prove 
by  identification  that  they  have  attended  a  High 
School. 


The  following  are  the  leading  articles  of  the 
morning  and  evening  Izvyestia  of  "Wednesday, 
March  14 : 


100  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 


About  4  p.  M.  February  28th  the  Admiralty, 
where  the  members  of  the  old  government  had 
been  concealed,  was  occupied  by  the  national 
troops. 

Up  to  12  o'clock  there  were  three  companies 
of  the  Izmailovsky  Regiment  and  some  mounted 
artillery  and  cavalry  in  the  Admiralty.  After 
twelve  these  troops,  who  had  been  on  the  side 
of  the  old  regime,  left  the  building  and  went 
home.  After  this  the  Ministers  who  had  been 
in  hiding  there  fled  from  the  Admiralty. 


At  11 :15  p.  M.  a  gentleman  in  a  fur  coat  came 
to  the  Tauride  Palace  and  asked  a  student 
there :  * '  Tell  me,  you  are  a  student  ? "  *  *  I  am, ' ' 
said  the  student.  "I  would  ask  you  please  to 
take  me  to  the  members  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee. I  am  the  former  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior, Protopopoff  and  I  have  always  desired 
the  welfare  of  our  country  and  have  therefore 
come  voluntarily.  Take  me  to  whomever  it  is 
necessary.'* 

The  student  took  Mr.  Protopopoff  to  the  of- 
fice of  the  Committee.  The  crowd  and  soldiers, 
recognising  him,  gave  vent  to  exclamations  of 
indig-nation.  Pale  and  tottering,  the  ex-minis- 
ter stood  before  one  of  the  members.  The  lat- 
ter, recognising  him,  sent  for  a  convoy.  The 
soldiers  led  him  to  the  Ministerial  Pavilion  ac- 
companied by  an  enormous  procession.  A.  F. 
Kerensky,  the  Labor  Leader,  then  appeared. 
The  prisoner  rose  and  going  to  him  said : ' '  Your 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    101 

Excellency,  I  place  myself  at  your  disposal." 
''Former  Minister  of  the  Interior  Protopo- 
poff, ' '  was  the  answer,  ' '  in  the  name  of  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  I  declare  you  arrested." 

Protopopoff  bowed  to  Kerensky  and  began  to 
whisper  something.  On  learning  that  the  ex- 
Minister  wanted  to  make  some  secret  commu- 
nication to  him,  Kerensky  had  a  talk  with  him 
in  a  separate  room,  the  contents  of  which  will 
be  given  in  this  paper. 


Further  arrests  made  are  as  follows : 

Ex-Minister  of  Justice  Dobrovolsky; 

Ex-Minister  of  Ways  of  Communication  Kri- 
ger-Voinovsky ; 

Former  Director  of  Police  Department  and 
Ex-Chief  of  Police  of  Moscow,  Gen.  Klhnovich ; 

Assistant  Chief  of  Petrograd  Police,  Lieut. 
Gen.  Vendoff ; 

Assistant  Chief  of  Petrograd  Police  Lyso- 
gorsky,  and  all  the  chief  members  of  the  Pre- 
fecture ; 

Dr.  Dubrovin,  President  of  the  Union  of  Rus- 
sian People. 


The  Committee  announces  that  no  arrests 
have  been  made  by  its  orders,  and  in  future  ar- 
rests will  be  made  only  under  special  orders 
from  the  Committee.  This  declaration  is  made 
because  there  may  be  foujid  to  be  among  those 
arrested,  persons  whose  arrest  is  not  at  all  nec- 
essary. 

In  Moscow  and  Kharkoff  the  authority  of  the 


102  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

Temporary  Committee  of  the  National  Duma 
has  been  recognised. 


At  1 :15  p.  M.  on  Wednesday  the  Grand  Duke 
Cyril  Vladimirovich  arrived  at  the  Tauride  Pal- 
lace.  The  Grand  Duke  was  accompanied  by  the 
admiral  commanding  the  Guard  Equipage 
(Marines)  and  an  escort  of  members  of  the 
Equipage. 

The  Grand  Duke  entered  the  Catherine  Hall, 
and  the  President  of  the  Duma  M.  V.  Rodzianko 
was  called  out.  Addressing  him,  the  Grand 
Duke  said : 

''I  have  the  honour  to  present  myself  to  Your 
High  Excellency.  I  am  at  your  disposal.  Like 
the  whole  nation  I  wish  the  welfare  of  Russia. 
This  morning  I  explained  to  all  the  soldiers  of 
the  Guard  Equipage  the  meaning  of  the  events 
which  were  taking  place  and  I  can  now  declare 
that  the  whole  Guard  Equipage  of  the  Fleet  is 
at  the  complete  disposal  of  the  National 
Duma. ' ' 

The  words  of  the  Grand  Duke  were  met  with 
cries  of  *' Hurrah!" 

M.  V.  Rodzianko  thanked  him  and  turning  to 
the  soldiers  surrounding  him,  said :  "I  am  very 
glad,  men,  to  hear  of  the  words  of  the  Grand 
Duke.  I  felt  sure  that  the  Guard  Equipage, 
as  all  the  other  troops,  would  fulfil  their  duty 
and  help  to  cope  with  the  common  enemy  and 
lead  Russia  to  victory." 

The  words  of  the  President  of  the  Duma  were 
also  met  with  cheers. 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    103 

Rodzianko  then  turning  to  the  Grand  Duke 
asked  if  he  wished  to  remain  in  the  Duma.  The 
latter  replied  that  the  whole  of  the  Guard  Equi- 
page was  on  its  way  to  the  Duma  and  that  he 
wished  to  present  them  to  its  President. 

''Then,"  said  Rodzianko,  "when  you  need 
me  call  me  out."  After  this  he  returned  to  his 
office. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  quarters  of 
the  Duma  are  occupied,  the  representatives  of 
the  Committee  of  Petrograd  Journalists  pro- 
posed that  the  Grand  Duke  use  their  room.  So 
the  Admiral  and  the  Adjutant  of  the  Grand 
Duke  accompanied  him  to  the  journalists*  room. 


The  personal  Convoy  of  His  Majesty  also  pre- 
sented themselves  at  the  Duma  and  were  met 
by  M.  A.  Karauloff,  representing  the  Executive 
Committee,  who  made  a  speech  of  welcome  to 
them.  Explaining  the  general  position  of  things 
Karauloff  called  upon  the  Convoy  to  join  the 
people  in  the  defence  of  their  interests. 

This  was  met  by  loud  hurrahs. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Karauloff  the  Convoy 
immediately  went  to  the  barracks  to  arrest  their 
officers  who  continued  true  to  the  old  authority. 


The  officers  of  the  Petrograd  garrison  who 
were  in  sympathy  with  the  people,  met 
in  the  Assembly  Hall  of  the  Army  and  Navy, 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Executive  Committee. 
Fully  realising  that  for  the  victorious  ending  of 


104  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  war  it  was  necessary  to  organise  as  swiftly 
as  possible  and  to  work  behind  the  lines,  they 
unanimously  resolved : 

To  recognise  the  authority  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  National  Duma  until  the  for- 
mation of  a  permanent  Government. 


Two  members  of  the  Duma,  representatives 
of  the  Province  of  the  Don  Cossacks,  visited  the 
barracks  of  the  First  and  Fourth  Don  Cossack 
regiments.  The  men  were  drawn  up  and  the 
deputies  made  warm  speeches  praising  their 
faithful  service  of  the  country  and  calling  upon 
them  to  serve  as  faithfully  the  new  government 
which  was  taking  upon  itself  the  defence  of  the 
fatherland. 

The  speech  was  met  with  cries  of  ' '  Hurrah. ' ' 


On  Wednesday  the  Commandant  of  the  Pal- 
ace at  Tsarskoe  Selo  telephoned  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Executive  Committee  and  requested 
that  measures  be  taken  to  restore  order  in  that 
suburb  and  especially  in  the  district  of  the 
Palace. 

At  the  order  of  the  Executive  Committee  two 
members  of  the  Duma  were  sent  thither.  All 
detachments  of  the  Tsarskoe  garrison  have  been 
ordered  by  the  Executive  Committee  to  remain 
in  their  places  and  maintain  order. 


Orders  have  been  issued  to  the  troops  and 
militia  of  Petrograd  as  follows: 


News  Bulletins  of  the  Revolution    105 

* '  There  are  immediately  to  be  arrested  all 
intoxicated  persons,  robbers,  incendiaries,  those 
firing  in  the  air  and,  in  general,  disturbers  of 
peace  and  order;  those  resisting  persons  who 
have  special  powers  of  any  kind  from  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  and  persons  serving  in  the 
protection  of  the  city;  all  members  of  the  po- 
lice, of  the  secret  police  and  of  the  Gendarme 
Corps;  all  persons  who  make  searches  in  pri- 
vate apartments,  or  arrest  private  persons,  es- 
pecially members  of  the  army,  without  being 
authorised  to  do  so  by  the  government. 

All  arrested  persons  are  to  be  taken  to  va- 
rious places  of  detention  indicated,  with  the 
exception  of  high  officials  and  generals,  who,  in 
case  it  is  necessary  to  detain  them,  shall  be 
taken  to  the  Tauride  Palace." 

Signed,  Member  of  the  Temporary  Commit- 
tee, M.  Kaeauloff. 


An  order  has  been  issued  that  soldiers  shall 
not  deprive  officers  of  their  arms.  The  order 
to  do  so  was  never  issued  by  the  Committee. 


The  Petrograd  Telegraph  Agency  has  been 
taken  over  by  the  Committee  and  placed  in 
charge  of  A.  M.  Lovyagin. 

S.  A.  Adrianoff  has  been  appointed  Director. 

Circular  telegrams  were  immediately  drawn 
up  explaining  all  the  events  of  the  past  three 
days  and  despatched  "urgent"  to  all  provin- 
cial newspapers. 


106  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

To  large  cities  like  Kharkoff,  Odessa,  Kief, 
Saratoff  and  others  supplementary  telegrams 
have  been  sent  explaining  everything  in  great 
detail. 

Practically  all  the  employees  remain. 

The  bulletins  will  in  future  be  only  for  the 
provincial  papers.  They  will  be  signed  by  P.  P. 
Grensky. 


The  Winter  Palace  was  occupied  by  revo- 
lutionary troops  on  Wednesday. 


The  central  bureau  of  the  city  militia  will  be 
in  the  City  Hall.  Committees  have  been  formed 
for  each  district.  Each  militiaman  will  be 
armed. 


The  supplies  of  flour  in  Petrograd  are  in- 
creasing, owing  to  the  arrival  of  trains.  Flour 
is  being  distributed  by  special  automobiles  to 
the  bakeries  for  immediate  baking. 


Bulletins  like  these  were  published  on  every 
day  of  Revolution  Week  and  were  only  discon- 
tinued on  Sunday,  March  18,  when  the  regular 
Petrograd  newspapers  resumed  publication. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  NEW  OEDER  REPLACES  THE  OLD 

Wednesday,  March  14.  Last  night  our  little 
servant-maid  almost  gave  up  the  ghost.  She 
had  accumulated  a  hard  cold  from  running 
around  the  streets  for  news, — she  and  Varia 
the  cook  are  gluttons  for  it,  being  enthusiastic 
revolutionists, — and  she  had  been  dreadfully- 
upset  by  seeing  a  policeman  killed.  She  com- 
plained of  chills  and  was  dressed  by  the  cook  in 
a  pair  of  Huntington's  woollen  pajamas  and  put 
to  bed  in  a  hot  little  mezzanine  bedroom  up  a 
ladder  from  the  kitchen.  There  she  developed 
a  high  fever  and  violent  delirium.  H.  and  I 
took  the  case  in  hand,  as  the  shooting  in  the 
streets  made  it  impossible  to  go  for  a  doctor. 

The  mezzanine  was  a  perfect  oven,  so  we 
gently  lowered  her  down  the  ladder  and  put  her 
in  her  own  bed.  She  kept  moaning  about  the 
dying  policeman  and  a  little  boy  who  had 
laughed;  again  and  again  she  repeated,  "That 
little  boy  shouldn't  have  laughed!    It  was  hor- 

107 


108  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

rid  to  laugh!"  We  got  a  pan  of  snow  from 
outside  and  made  an  ice-pack  for  her  head.  I 
agreed  to  hold  it  on  for  the  first  spell  while 
Huntington  got  a  snatch  of  sleep,  but  just  then 
she  became  violent  and  began  tearing  the  but- 
tons from  her  garment  and  putting  them  into 
her  mouth.  I  tilted  her  forward  and  slapped  her 
on  the  back  till  she  coughed  up  the  first  one; 
but  when  she  plucked  at  the  second,  I  lost  my 
nerve  and  called  for  help.  We  finally  quieted 
her  by  giving  her  the  little  enamel  ikon  which 
hung  on  a  nail  by  the  bed ;  this  threw  her  into  a 
religious  ecstasy  which  was  touching  to  behold. 
She  had  been  muttering  ^'Tazhaulaya  zhisn!'* 
(''It's  a  burdensome  life!")  but  now  she  cooed 
with  pleasure.  She  finally  went  to  sleep  at 
about  three  and  has  lost  most  of  her  fever  this 
morning ;  also  most  of  her  hair. 

While  dressing,  we  heard  a  rumor  from  our 
intelligence  department,  Varia  the  cook,  that 
policemen  had  opened  fire  on  passers-by  from 
the  roof  of  this  building.  There  were  crowds  of 
soldiers  everywhere  and  by  peering  cautiously 
through  the  lace  curtains  we  could  safely  watch 
the  squads  that  tramped  to  and  fro  in  the  court- 
yard; the  leaders  were  in  earnest  discussion, 
pointing  upward  frequently  and  going  first  into 
one  entrance  and  then  into  another.  Hardly  had 


The  New  Order  Eeplaces  the  Old  109 

we  sat  down  to  breakfast  than  there  was  a  great 
tramping  in  the  kitchen  and  our  little  dining- 
room  was  filled  with  husky  Russian  soldiers, 
glistening  bayonets  and  the  inevitable  acrid 
smell  of  boot-leather.  I  had  a  vision  of  a  cold 
walk  to  the  Duma,  but  the  single  word  *'Ameri- 
kantsi'*  satisfied  them  and  they  swarmed  out 
smiling. 

When  we  left  the  building  they  were  still  on 
guard  and  a  great  throng  of  them  were  clus- 
tered about  the  Sergievskaya  door.  We  stopped 
to  watch  the  proceedings,  and  presently  saw 
preparations  for  the  warm  reception  of  one  of 
our  fellow-tenants.  An  automobile  was  stopped, 
its  door  opened,  and  the  soldiers  formed  two 
lines.  One  of  them  clubbed  his  rifle,  another  with 
a  drawn  sword  practised  striking  an  execu- 
tioner's blow,  and  we  thought  blood  would  be 
shed.  Then  in  the  doorway  appeared  an  old  gen- 
eral in  full  uniform,  perfectly  imperturbable. 
He  got  into  the  motor,  followed  by  his  valet  car- 
rying three  glittering  ceremonial  swords.  The 
crowd  hooted,  objecting  to  the  use  of  the  auto, 
shouting  that  he  ought  to  walk ;  but  there  was  no 
violence  and  the  motor  sped  away  toward  the 
Duma. 

I  went  to  the  Embassy  with  H.  and  heard 
the  following  item  of  interest :     The  revolution 


110  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

may  be  considered  a  complete  success  as  the 
whole  Petrograd  district  is  in  its  hands;  revo- 
lutionary troops  have  gone  out  as  far  as 
Tsarskoe  Selo,  Peterhof  and  Oranienbaum  and 
persuaded  the  garrisons  there  to  join  them  and 
march  into  town.  The  Council  of  the  Empire,* 
acting  through  a  committee  of  its  most  distin- 
guished men,  Guchkoff,  Troubetskoi  and  others, 
telegraphed  the  Tsar  stating  that  the  present 
ministry  had  never  had  the  confidence  of  the 
people  and  prophesying  the  complete  failure  of 
the  war,  the  fall  of  the  dynasty  and  great  mis- 
fortune to  Russia  unless  a  ministry  satisfactory 
to  the  people  is  formed  immediately.  This 
sounds  pretty  radical  from  that  conservative 
body. 

On  Monday,  the  Duma  Executive  Committee 
itself  initiated  the  plan  of  having  every  factory 
in  the  capital  and  every  regiment  of  the  gar- 
rison choose  delegates  to  a  council  which  should 
co-operate  in  restoring  order  and  establishing 
a  new  government.  This  council  was  quickly 
formed,  chose  as  its  president  Duma  Member 
Chkheidze  and  as  its  vice-president  Skobeleff 

*  The  Council  of  the  Empire  is  the  upper  house  of  the  na- 
tional legislature  and  one-half  its  members  are  appointed  by 
the  Tsar.  It  is  the  same  sort  of  a  death-chamber  for  legislation 
as  the  Buudesrath  in  Germany. — J.  L.  H.,  Jr. 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  111 

and  adopted  the  title  ''Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers'  Deputies." 

The  Eevolution  deserves  its  success.  It  is 
working  out  so  well  that  I  wonder  if  it  was  not 
all  planned  beforehand.  Everything  proceeds 
in  good  order;  the  only  confusion  to-day  is 
caused  by  the  last  stand  of  the  police  and  the  ar- 
rest of  all  friends  of  the  old  regime.  There  has 
never  been  much  looting  except  from  govern- 
ment stores.  A  few  food  shops  which  were 
locked  up  at  the  first  sign  of  trouble  were 
broken  into,  and  others  with  German  names  suf- 
fered. But  most  provision  stores  stayed  open 
and  did  a  good  business.  Now  the  breadlines 
are  forming  in  orderly  fashion,  though  without 
police  superintendence,  and  the  market  women 
are  patiently  waiting  as  usual,  but  more  con- 
tentedly, for  they  know  they  are  fairly  treated. 
Prices  are  lower.  The  soldiers  are  orderly,  too ; 
many  exhibit  officers'  swords,  field  glasses  or 
equipment,  but  no  other  plunder.  There  are 
now  considerably  fewer  rifles  in  civilian  hands. 

At  the  Embassy  they  get  all  the  latest  sam- 
ples from  the  rumor  factories.  Here  are  a 
few :  the  hated  Protopopoff  has  been  killed  by 
a  sailor;  the  ministers  have  escaped  to  Tsars- 
koe  Selo ;  they  are,  on  the  contrary,  meeting  in 
the  Admiralty  under  the  protection  of  a  loyal 


112  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

regiment ;  Gen.  Ivanoff  has  heen  appointed  Dic- 
tator of  the  Empire  by  the  Tsar  and  is  march- 
ing on  the  capital  with  loyal  troops. 

Dr.  Downer,  just  arrived  from  Tsarskoe  Selo, 
says  that  the  people  of  that  suburb  have  not 
heard  of  the  revolution  except  as  unimportant 
bread  riots.  It  is  rumored  there  that  the  Tsar 
will  arrive  this  afternoon  and  will  come  to  Pet- 
rograd  to  address  the  Duma. 

Under  instructions  from  the  Ambassador, 
Dr.  Huntington  w^as  sent  off  to  interview  the 
telephone  and  telegraph  people  about  service, 
and  I  joined  him  for  the  three-mile  walk  across 
the  disturbed  districts  of  the  city.  The  Ambas- 
sador wishes  to  send  code  messages  to  the  State 
Department,  and  to  get  messages  from  abroad 
which  may  have  accumulated  during  these  three 
days  of  confusion.  The  telephone  is  out  of  com- 
mission because  on  Monday  some  one  tore  the 
iron  cover  off  the  control  box  on  our  corner  and 
ripped  all  the  wires  loose. 

We  hear  that  with  few  exceptions  telephone 
connections  have  been  preserved,  although  the 
operators  say,  ''I  won't  connect  you  with  any 
general  and  if  you  are  a  general,  I  won't  give 
you  any  connection."  Members  of  the  old  gov- 
ernment receive  no  service  in  their  homes. 

On  the  Liteiny  we  saw  many  groups  of  peo- 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  113 

pie  listenmg  to  the  reading  aloud  of  news  bulle- 
tins. This  is  the  revolution's  way  of  spreading 
the  news  and  is  very  effective  in  a  land  where 
only  a  small  proportion  can  read.  Such  gather- 
ings were  never  allowed  before  on  the  streets 
of  Petrograd. 

In  the  Pantaleimonskaya  a  police  station  had 
been  badly  wrecked  and  for  a  block  we  w^alked 
in  a  black  snow-storm  of  burnt  records. 

In  front  of  the  Engineers  Palace  we  found  a 
company  of  soldiers  drawn  up  and  a  great 
crowd  gathered.  In  the  court-yard  stood  an  ar- 
mored car,  and  around  it  a  fierce  argTiment 
raged.  Meanwhile  soldiers  were  imperturbably 
carrying  boxes  of  revolvers  out  of  the  palace 
and  piling  them  near-by.  At  one  time  the  ar- 
gument was  so  hot  that  one  faction  had  a  mo- 
tor, with  two  machine  gTins  perched  behind, 
backed  up  to  the  archway  so  as  to  cover  the 
other  faction.  But  before  this  and  the  armored 
car  came  to  blows  a  settlement  was  effected. 

We  crossed  the  Mikhailoff  Square  to  the  Ho- 
tel Europe  and  Huntington  suggested  that  we 
stop  long  enough  to  reassure  some  Anaeiican 
friends.  From  their  window  we  witnessed  the 
behind-the-scenes  of  a  street  battle.  First  we 
heard  volleys  of  shots  from  the  direction  of  the 
Nevsky;  then  we  saw  armed  sailors  retreating 


114  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

frantically  down  the  Mikhailovskaya,  dodging 
into  doorways,  areas  and  behind  all  possible 
cover ;  one  man  made  the  whole  distance  to  the 
protecting  corner  of  the  square  at  a  run  with  a 
queer  little  jerky  half-stop  in  front  of  each  pos- 
sible shelter.  The  police  must  have  fired  from 
the  roof  of  the  hotel  or  of  the  City  Hall  beyond, 
for  from  their  hiding-places  the  sailors  began 
looking  and  pointing  toward  a  spot  on  the  roof 
just  above  the  window  we  occupied.  We 
thought  they  saw  us  and  stood  back  out  of  range 
of  breaking  glass.  Just  then  a  squad  of  cavalry 
and  a  company  of  infantry  entered  the  square 
from  a  side  street,  and,  thus  reinforced,  the 
sailors  rallied  and  all  came  gingerly  over  toward 
the  hotel  and  were  lost  from  view.  When  Hunt- 
ington and  I  went  downstairs,  they  were  in  pos- 
session of  the  lobby  and  we  had  to  search  out 
their  officer  and  show  our  identification  letters,  * 
written  in  Russian  and  signed  and  sealed  by  the 
Ambassador,  before  we  could  depart. 

That  neighborhood  and  the  quarter  behind 
the  Kazan  Cathedral  were  the  active  field  of  the 
day's  operations.  We  rounded  the  Nevsky  cor- 
ner safely,  but  on  all  sides  heard  rifle-shots  and 
machine-gun  fire.  The  west  bank  of  the  Moika 
Canal  was  a  roomier,  safer  promenade  than  the 

*A11  Americans  who  applied  were  given  these. 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  115 

Morskaya  and,  by  stopping  at  each  corner  and 
craning  down  the  side-street,  we  were  able  to 
reach  St.  Isaac's  Square  without  casualties. 
Once  or  twice,  as  we  looked  up  the  streets  on 
the  other  side  of  the  canal,  we  saw  men  who 
seemed  to  be  spraying  the  buildings  indiscrimi- 
nately with  machine  guns. 

When  we  got  to  the  Astoria  Hotel,  we  found 
its  first  floor  a  complete  wreck.  This  hotel  was 
commandeered  by  the  old  government  six 
months  ago  and  has  been  used  as  a  luxurious 
headquarters  for  the  higher  officers.  The  mob 
had  captured  it  a  few  hours  before  we  arrived ; 
they  had  killed  some  officers,  dragged  a  hiding 
Roumanian  out  by  the  feet,  and  then  had  broken 
everything  in  sight.  The  great  windows  of  the 
ground-floor  parlors  were  jaggedly  shattered 
and  gaping,  the  furniture  was  grotesquely  dis- 
membered and  upset,  papers,  books  and  even 
stationery  were  strewn  half -burnt  everywhere. 
The  snow  of  the  Morskaya  was  cumbered  with 
hundreds  of  broken  bottles  and  soggy  with  spilt 
wine.  And  yet  in  one  room  where  the  furniture 
was  a  pile  of  kindling  wood  and  even  the  electric 
brackets  had  been  torn  away,  we  saw  large 
framed  photographs  of  the  Tsar,  the  Tsarina 
and  the  Tsarevich  hanging  on  the  walls  per- 
fectly undisturbed. 


116  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

The  hoarding  of  the  main  door  of  the  German 
Emhassy  had  heen  torn  away  and  that  of  one  of 
the  upper  windows,  too ;  so  they  must  have  tried 
their  hands  there  again.  This  contrasts  with 
the  gentle  treatment  accorded  the  Austrian  Em- 
bassy even  at  a  time  when  it  was  a  refuge  for 
loyalist  soldiers. 

At  the  telegraph  office  we  were  referred  to 
the  Commandant,  a  very  intelligent  young  lieu- 
tenant. No  bureaucratic  red-tape  now!  He 
could  find  no  in-coming  cables  for  the  Embassy, 
but  let  us  look  at  the  receipt  book  of  foreign 
messages,  showing  three  from  Jassy,  one  from 
Saloniki,  one  from  Stockholm,  and  one  from 
Berlin.  Of  course,  said  he,  we  could  send  mes- 
sages in  code  as  much  as  we  liked;  and  any 
other  messages  would  be  promptly  cared  for. 
He  looked  as  if  he  meant  it  and  we  felt  that  a 
new  era  had  come  for  Russia.  The  office  was 
full  of  busily  working  clerks  and  appeared 
quite  normal. 

On  our  return  we  stopped  at  the  corner  of  the 
Synod  to  see  the  arrest  of  an  aged  civilian- 
colonel,  who  was  objecting  excitedly  to  a  three- 
mile  trip  to  the  Duma  on  foot.  After  seeing  him 
safely  started  we  walked  through  the  gardens 
in  front  of  the  Admiralty  and  looked  for  traces 
of  a  desperate  defence ;  but  the  great  building 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  117 

seemed  deserted  and  as  quiet  as  the  grave.  We 
turned  down  a  side-street  and  watched  a  husi- 
ness-like  civilian  commandeer  a  motor  from  a 
very  disgusted  young  lieutenant.  The  civilian 
raised  his  hand  to  stop  the  car  and  said  a  few 
words  to  the  officer,  who  promptly  climbed  out. 
The  motor  was  added  to  a  collection  in  a  court- 
yard, and  the  lieutenant  slunk  off  unhappily. 

The  streets  are  crowded,  and  now  that  the 
miscellaneous  firing  is  limited  to  a  few  well-de- 
fined districts  and  the  bread-hnes  have  begun  to 
occupy  so  much  sidewalk  space,  people  usually 
walk  in  the  roadways.  There  are  no  horse  vehi- 
cles nor  street  cars,  and  while  scout  automo- 
biles, news-distributing  motors,  armored  cars 
and  armed  trucks  run  pretty  fast,  there  is  plenty 
of  room  for  side-stepping.  All  these  varieties 
of  motors  are  very  picturesque,  especially  the 
scout  cars  full  of  eager  soldiers  standing  with 
rifles  half  levelled,  those  with  machine  guns  set 
up  in  the  tonneaux,  and  the  big  armored  cars. 

At  the  telephone  office  we  had  to  pass  the 
usual  guard  of  soldiers.  They  were  commanded 
by  a  little  blond  scared-looking  officer-boy,  who, 
when  he  heard  we  were  from  the  American 
Embassy,  drew  us  aside  and  asked  in  French, 
very  earnestly  and  pathetically,  "Do  you  think 
you  could  get  me  the  necessary  papers  to  go  to 


118  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

America?"  H.  asked  why  and  he  answered, 
*  *  Oh,  the  situation  is  getting  very  bad  over  here. 
It's  very  dangerous  and  I  don't  like  it  at  all." 
Poor  youngster,  he  is  probably  the  scion  of  some 
unpopular  noble  family,  just  cHnging  to  the 
Revolution  by  his  eyelids  and  knowing  that  a 
single  misstep  will  end  him. 

In  the  telephone  office  we  found  everything 
quite  normal.  The  manager  knew  about  the 
Embassy's  plight  from  a  message  previously 
sent  him  by  courier.  He  had  the  index  cards  for 
our  phone-numbers  on  his  desk  and  said  that  a 
man  had  already  been  sent,  first  to  another  job 
on  the  Nevsky  and  then  to  us.  He  was  speaking 
the  truth,  we  found  later,  to  our  amazement.  A 
new  day  has  dawned  in  Russia  when  one  gets 
service  within  24  hours  of  application ! 

On  the  Nevsky-Morskaya  corner,  we  ran  into 
a  regiment  preceded  by  its  band,  fully  officered 
and  in  perfect  order;  the  higher  officers  were 
mounted.  Behind  the  last  file  came  rank  after 
rank  of  officers,  weaponless  and  with  arms 
linked;  some  of  them  were  swathed  in  band- 
ages and  one  or  two  could  hardly  drag  one  foot 
after  the  other.  We  could  not  make  out  whether 
they  were  prisoners  or  a  voluntary  part  of  the 
parade.  Certainly  there  was  no  guard  around 
them  except  a  crowd  of  street  boys.  At  the  Mor- 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  119 

skaya  the  greater  portion  of  the  regiment 
turned  toward  St.  Isaac's  Square  but  these  offi- 
cers kept  straight  on  toward  the  Admiralty. 

At  dinner,  the  soldiers  again  visited  our 
apartment.  They  asked  a  few  questions,  suc- 
ceeded in  stealing  the  cook's  alarm  clock,  and 
departed.  The  cook  says  that  these  visitants 
are  several  things,  but  specifically  that  they  are 
the  same  Cossacks  who  used  to  shoot  into 
crowds  and  to  charge  them  with  knouts  and  with 
drawn  sabres. 

Protopopoff,  the  immediate  cause  of  the  Rev- 
olution, is  a  prisoner  at  the  Duma.  Goremykin 
was  arrested,  too;  and  Sturmer;  and  Gen.  Suk- 
homlinoff,  the  War  Minister  convicted  of  selling 
information  to  the  Germans,  imprisoned  but  re- 
leased by  the  late  government. 

The  rest  of  the  ministers  have  resigned.  The 
good  and  indifferent  ones  are  left  alone,  the 
bad  ones  confined  at  the  Duma. 

Thursday,  March  15.  Monday,  Tuesday  and 
Wednesday  were  the  successive  days  of  the  re- 
volt of  the  troops,  the  breaking  of  the  resistive 
power  of  the  old  order  through  the  police,  and 
the  disappearance  of  the  old  government.  Log- 
ical steps,  accomplished  quickly,  neatily  and 
without  much  unnecessary  bloodshed.  Thurs- 
day begins  reconstruction. 


120  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

The  revolution  has  not  hroken  the  age-long 
Russian  habit  of  getting  up  late.  Mr.  McEnolty 
went  shopping  at  8:30  yesterday  morning  and 
could  buy  anything  he  wanted,  for  he  was  the 
only  customer  in  the  shops. 

As  Huntington  and  I  left  the  apartment  this 
morning,  we  met  our  head  dvomik  (janitor), 
who  has  been  missing  since  Monday.  This  is  a 
great  apartment  building  for  generals  and  such, 
and  the  story  was  abroad  that  this  man  was  a 
police  spy  and  that  the  revolutionists  had  abol- 
ished him.  Apparentlj^  we  had  been  wronging 
the  poor  fellow  by  our  suspicions. 

"We  went  down  to  the  Second  Division  of  the 
Embassy  and  just  beyond  the  barricade  which 
still  blocks  the  Liteiny,  we  met  as  beautiful  a 
body  of  troops  as  I  ever  hope  to  see,  fully  offi- 
cered, fully  equipped,  with  battle-flags  bearing 
sacred  pictures.  A  well-dressed  man  on  the 
sidewalk  told  us  that  this  was  the  Kadetsky 
Korpus,  the  Imperial  military  school,  on  its  way 
to  the  Duma  to  offer  its  services. 

The  Ambassador  has  heard  through  Mr.  Mc- 
Allister Smith  who  heard  it  from  a  near  relative 
of  Rodzianko,  that  the  Tsar  has  abdicated,  the 
Tsarevich  succeeding  him  with  the  Tsar's 
brother,  the  Grand  Duke  Michael,  as  regent. 
As  we  were  all  anxious  to  confirm  this.  Hunt- 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  121 

ington  and  I  volunteered  to  go  to  the  Duma, 
get  in  somehow,  and  interview  a  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee  or  some  other  function- 
ary who  could  give  us  official  information. 

Before  starting,  we  heard  of  the  death  of  Gen. 
Stackelberg, — the  general  who  led  the  forlorn 
hope  to  relieve  Port  Arthur  in  the  Russo-Jap- 
anese War.  This  general  was  stupid  enough  to 
fire  his  revolver  into  a  crowd  of  soldiers  from 
the  window  of  his  house  near  the  Marble  Palace. 
They  took  him  out  on  the  Quay  and  when  he  fell 
down,  trampled  him  to  death.* 

At  the  Duma  we  purposely  avoided  the  dense 
soldier-mob  before  the  main  entrance,  knowing 
the  hair-trigger  temper  of  its  outposts.  Instead 
we  went  to  the  comparatively  deserted  east  en- 
trance and  presented  our  identification  papers 
with  their  great  red  U.  S.  seals;  the  sentinel 
— who  could  not  read  but  did  not  want  us  to 
know  it — looked  wise  and  showed  us  into  the  of- 
fice of  the  chief-of -police.  There  we  again  ex- 
hibited our  papers  and  were  courteously  ad- 
mitted to  the  main  corridor.  We  pushed 
through  groups  and  crowds   of  civilians  and 

*  This  story  of  the  death  of  a  gallant  soldier  is  not  accurate. 
He  was  arrested  without  warrant,  and  lost  his  life  because  some 
one  fired  a  random  shot  which  his  guard  took  for  an  attempt 
at  rescue. 


122  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

squads  of  soldiers  and  stepped  over  the  feet  of 
innumerable  page-hoys  who  sat  on  the  floor  he- 
hind  the  people.  Presently  we  almost  collided 
with  President  Rodzianko  who  was  striding 
along  the  corridor  followed  by  an  eager  throng. 
Then  we  met  Mr.  Shidlovsky,  a  member  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  whom  Huntington  knew. 
We  began  to  question  him,  but  he  was  very  pre- 
occupied and  told  us  to  look  around  a  bit  and 
then  to  take  a  chance  and  drop  in  at  his  office 
in  about  an  hour. 

The  building  was  a  wild  confusion,  with  every 
corner  occupied.  The  floor  of  the  main  hall  was 
piled  high  with  sacks  of  flour,  crates,  bolts  of 
cloth,  and  all  sorts  of  supplies.  Among  these 
piles  moved  delegations  of  soldiers  from  the 
regiments  lined  up  outside,  officers,  dignified 
chinovniks  in  civilian  uniforms,  eager  students 
in  green  overcoats  and  caps.  On  one  side,  a 
group  of  soldiers  was  studying  the  portrait  gal- 
lery of  members  of  the  present  Duma,  turning 
rapidly  the  hinged  wooden  leaves  on  which  the 
photographs  were  mounted  and  exclaiming  glee- 
fully when  they  found  Kerensky,  Chkheidze  or 
some  other  favorite. 

We  had  to  show  our  credentials  again  to  pass 
through  the  colonnade  into  the  beautiful  Ekat- 
erinsky  Hall  which  is  the  lobby  and  promenade 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  123 

of  the  Duma.  In  this  lofty  white-pillared  room, 
several  companies  of  the  Kadetsky  Korpus  were 
lined  up  and  a  thousand  or  more  other  soldiers 
and  civilians  crowded  around  them.  Every  one, 
except  a  few  readers  or  arguers  on  the  outskirts, 
was  listening  to  orators  who  stood  in  the  low 
gallery  leading  to  the  rear  seats  of  the  Duma 
Chamber.  When  we  entered,  an  untidy  little 
workman  was  shouting  himself  hoarse,  empha- 
sising his  words  with  a  single  gesture  like  the 
crawl-stroke  of  a  swimmer.  He  was  crying, 
^'Workingmen,  arise!  The  Eevolution  is  not 
over  but  only  half  done.  The  laboring  people 
must  triumph  completely  and  must  rule.  It  is 
not  right  for  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Duma  to  sign  orders  as  the  equals  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Workmen 's  and  Soldiers '  Deputies ! "  He 
was  interrupted  by  cries  of  * '  Mozhno !  mozh- 
no!'*  {"It  is  permitted!")  and  forthwith  sub- 
sided. A  big  black-bearded  fellow  with  a  hooked 
Jewish  nose  mounted  the  rostrum  and  attacked 
the  war  as  a  thing  of  financiers  and  capitalists. 
Just  as  he  was  getting  into  his  stride,  the  cadet- 
ofiicer  called  his  men  to  attention  and  they 
marched  off,  drowning  with  their  cadenced 
tread  the  shouts  of  the  orator.  The  audience 
showed  no  sign  of  resenting  this  interruption, 
and  greeted  with  distinct  murmurs  of  disap- 


124  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

proval  the  speaker's  further  tirades  against 
the  war.  They  applauded  vociferously  the  pa- 
triotic sentiments  of  the  earnest  soldier  who 
spoke  next.  Any  one  could  preach  any  doc- 
trine to  liberated  Russia,  but  radical  propa- 
ganda was  not  popular. 

At  this  point  men  went  through  the  hall  dis- 
tributing the  first  printed  order  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Workmen's  Deputies,  and  we  retired 
into  a  corner  to  decipher  our  copy.  It  com- 
manded that  strict  discipline  should  exist  in 
the  ranks  of  the  army,  but  no  subserviency  out- 
side of  ranks ;  that  the  soldiers  should  drop  all 
titles  for  officers  such  as  "Excellency"  or 
"High  well-born"  and  use  the  forms  of  address 
"Mr.  General,"  "Mr.  Colonel,"  etc.;  that  the 
officers  should  not  treat  the  men  roughly  nor 
address  them  with  the  pronoun  "thou."  * 

Then  we  went  to  Mr.  Shidlovsky's  office  and 
were  admitted  without  difficulty.  Capt.  Gren- 
fell,  the  British  naval  attache,  was  with  him. 
We  asked  for  an  exact  statement  of  the  sit- 
uation and  Mr.  Shidlovsky  answered,  "Well, 
we  are  trying  to  form  a  cabinet.  We  propose 
to  dethrone  the  Tsar  and  put  his  heir  on  the 
throne  with  the  next-of-kin  as  regent."    I  said, 

*  After  the  Eevolution. — It  is  now  claimed  that  this  order  was 
printed  and  distributed  by  German  agents. 


X 


< 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  125 

"We  have  heard  that  that  has  already  been 
done."  He  replied,  ''Not  yet,  but  that  is  our 
programme";  then  he  added  "Of  course  we  are 
not  masters  of  the  situation.  The  people  and 
the  soldiers  dominate,  so  we  have  to  go  very 
carefully."  I  told  him  of  the  socialist  speeches 
outside  and  asked  him  if  he  regarded  them  as 
a  grave  factor.  He  said  he  did  not;  but  when 
we  showed  him  Order  No.  1  he  studied  it,  frown- 
ing, and  said  it  was  bad.  He  expressed  fear 
that  there  was  great  disorder  in  Petrograd  and 
when  we  praised  the  wonderful  orderliness  of 
the  revolution  and  the  genius  it  showed,  he 
seemed  much  pleased.  He  said,  "Of  course  a 
majority  of  the  arrests  have  not  been  by  our 
order. ' '  Here  Capt.  Grenf ell  interrupted  to  ask 
Mr.  S.  to  sign  permits  for  the  admission 
and  provisioning  of  40  marines  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  British  Embassy,  and  our  inter- 
view ended.  Mr.  Shidlovsky  is  leader  of  the 
Progressist  block  of  the  Duma,  a  rather  con- 
servative group,  and  is  much  less  advanced 
than  Miliukoff  and  many  others  of  the  commit- 
tee. 

We  asked  Capt.  Grenfell  what  he  knew.  He 
said,  "The  Tsar  is  at  Pskoff  under  guard.  He's 
not  exactly  under  arrest,  they're  treating  him 
very  nicely  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.    But  we 


126  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

needn't  think  of  him  any  more."  We  asked 
about  the  Ivanoff  dictatorship  and  he  said  that 
it  was  an  old  move  and  had  come  to  nothing; 
there  would  be  no  action  by  the  army  against 
the  revolution.  Just  then  in  came  a  big  broad- 
shouldered  chap  of  about  thirty-five,  very 
agreeable  and  with  a  good  command  of  Eng- 
lish. Huntington  knew  him  and  introduced 
him  to  me  as  Mr.  Tereshchenko,  a  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  War  Industry  Committee.  He  had 
business  with  Mr.  Shidlovsky,  so  after  a  few 
words  with  him  and  a  farewell  to  the  latter,  we 
departed. 

In  the  afternoon,  I  started  out  with  Hunt- 
ington to  the  telephone  office,  to  try  to  speed 
up  the  repairing  of  the  still-unresponsive  Em- 
bassy phone.  In  front  of  the  Novoye  Vremya 
office  on  the  Nevsky-Sadovaya  corner,  we  found 
a  great  crowd  studying  a  bulletin  board  which 
gave  the  names  of  the  new  cabinet  as  **  ap- 
proved by  the  Duma  in  harmony  with  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Workmen's  and  Soldiers'  Deputies." 
I  took  down  the  list  in  my  notebook,  as  many 
others  were  doing:  President  of  Council  of 
Ministers  and  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Prince 
Lvoff ;  Procurator  of  Holy  Synod,  V.  N.  Lvoff ; 
Ways  of  Communication,  N.  V.  Nekrasoff ;  Jus- 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  127 

tice,  A.  F.  Kerensky  or  Maklakoff ;  *  Controller 
of  the  Empire,  I.  V.  Godneff ;  Foreign  Affairs, 
P.  N.  Miliukoff ;  Trade  and  Industry,  A.  I.  Ko- 
novaloff ;  Public  Instruction,  Prof.  A.  A.  Manu- 
iloff;  War  and  temporarily  Navy,  A.  I.  Guch- 
koff;  Finance,  M.  I.  Tereshchenko ;  Lands  and 
Agriculture,  A.  I.  Shingareff. 

The  names  represent  the  best  talent  of  Hberal 
Russia.  Prince  Lvoff,  the  new  premier,  is  not 
now  in  either  chamber,  but  is  president  of  the 
Governing  Committee  of  the  All-Russian  Zem- 
stvo  Union,  which  for  the  last  two  years  has 
done  far  more  than  the  government  to  keep 
Russia  in  the  war;  the  Union  is  a  great  proof 
that  executive  and  organising  ability  do  exist  in 
this  country  and  its  guiding  spirit  is  Prince 
Lvoff.  He  seems  a  remarkably  wise  choice  for 
the  head  of  the  new  government.  GuchkofP,  the 
war  minister,  represents  Moscow  in  the  upper 
chamber,  the  Council  of  the  Empire.  He  is  a 
wealthy  merchant,  newspaper-owner  and  phil- 
anthropist, and  is  president  of  the  War  Indus- 
try Committee,  another  of  the  great  private 
agencies  which  has  been  maintaining  the  war. 
Prof.  Miliukoff 's  selection  for  the  Foreign  Of- 
fice is  excellent  too.    He  knows  America  and 

*  Apparently  there  was  some  doubt  at  first  whether  Kerensky 
should  even  be  included  in  the  ministry. 


128  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

England  well  and  is  mucli  in  sympathy  with 
western  institutions ;  he  is  admittedly  the  great- 
est Russian  authority  on  the  Balkans,  having 
lived  in  Sofia  a  number  of  years  and  founded  in 
that  city  the  Bulgarian  national  university. 
Furthermore,  he  is  the  veteran  fighter  for  lib- 
erty in  Russia  and  has  run  the  risk  of  his  life 
over  and  over  again.  For  a  long  time  he  was 
an  outcast  in  the  eyes  of  the  government  and  it 
was  unsafe  for  diplomats  to  know  him.  Shin- 
gareff  came  to  the  Duma  as  an  unknown  doctor 
from  Little  Russia  and  studied  up  on  finance 
and  agriculture  until  he  was  in  a  position  to 
correct  bureaucratic  ministers  repeatedly  on 
financial  and  agrarian  questions. 

Nekrasoff  is  vice-president  of  the  Municipal 
Union  and  a  Duma  liberal  of  many  years' 
standing.  Prof.  Manuilotf  is  the  rector  of  the 
great  University  of  Moscow.  Tereshchenko 
(our  acquaintance  of  this  morning)  comes  from 
Kief  and  is  a  great  landed  proprietor;  as  sec- 
ond vice-president  of  the  War  Industry  Com- 
mittee, he  has  been  the  foreign  exchange  expert 
of  the  volunteer  business-men's  organisation 
which  has  taken  over  the  whole  management  of 
the  munitions  supply.  Kerensky  has  been  the 
leader  of  the  little  group  of  Social  Revolution- 
aries in  the  Duma  and  an  open  advocate  of  ter- 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  129 

roristic  measures.  He  is  a  briUiant  lawyer  but 
gives  much  of  his  time  to  the  free  defence  of 
terrorists  and  "politicals/* 

Rodzianko  has  refused  a  seat  in  the  new  cabi- 
net and  continues  as  president  of  the  Duma. 

At  the  telephone  building  we  found  the  male 
employes  collected  in  the  courtyard  listening 
to  a  harangue  from  an  orator  on  a  stepladder. 
There  was  hardly  a  man  in  the  building.  Many 
telephone  girls,  gathered  in  the  main  hall,  com- 
plained to  us  that  there  was  no  manager  to  set 
them  to  work. 

In  front  of  the  Hotel  France  we  met  Dosch- 
Fleurot  of  the  N.  Y.  World  just  back  from  the 
Duma,  who  reported  that  that  body  and  the 
Workmen's  Deputies  had  both  confirmed  the 
new  cabinet.  He  could  give  us  no  news  about 
the  abdication  of  the  Emperor. 

On  the  Palace  Square  we  saw  a  strange  sight, 
a  motor  with  red  flags  above  the  headlights  and 
a  large  British  flag  fluttering  on  the  running- 
board. 

The  Germans  had  a  hand  in  starting  the  pres- 
ent disturbance,  people  say.  Bad  handling  of 
supplies  through  Russians  of  German  descent, 
food  shortage,  riots,  socialist  propaganda,  ham- 
pering of  the  war, — such  was  their  programme ; 
then  possibly  a  revolution  as  a  pretext  for  the 


130  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

bureaucracy  to  make  a  separate  peace.  What 
a  boomerang  it  will  prove!  If  the  Tsar  abdi- 
cates, it  leaves  the  Kaiser  as  the  only  absolute 
monarch  in  Europe. 

To-day  began  with  a  snow-storm,  but  became 
beautiful  later.  We  have  not  heard  a  shot  fired 
all  day. 

Friday,  March  16.  The  first  action  of  the 
new  order  has  been  the  abolition  of  capital  pun- 
ishment. In  the  words  of  Kerensky,  the  Revo- 
lution "will  not  resort  to  the  methods  of  the 
old  regime." 

I  went  to  the  Embassy  early  with  Hunting- 
ton and  was  invited  to  a  "council  of  war." 

is  very  pessimistic  and  says  the  soldiers 

who  have  been  in  revolt  will  never  be  good  for 
anything  again,  that  the  revolution  will  take 
all  the  starch  out  of  the  troops  at  the  front,  and 
that  we  can  no  longer  figure  Russia  as  a  factor 
in  the  war.  Granting  the  demoralisation  of  the 
Petrograd  regiments,  neither  the  Ambassador 
nor  any  of  the  rest  of  us  can  agree  to  the  other 
conclusions.  Seventy  thousand  men  is  the  max- 
imum of  troops  involved,  and  this  is  a  mere 
drop  in  the  bucket.  hears  that  the  Ger- 
mans have  made  successful  advances  at  both 
Riga  and  Dvinsk  under  cover  of  the  unsteadi- 
ness of  the  Russian  armies,  and  that  the  Eng- 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  131 

lish  and  French  are  very  blue  about  it.  One  of 
those  present  had  heard,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  there  was  a  revolution  yesterday  in  Berlin 
and  that  the  Kaiser  was  killed. 

Whitehouse  came  in  with  sanguinary  stories. 
A  general  was  driving  peacefully  along  a  main 
street  in  an  open  sleigh,  when  a  shot  was  fired 
from  some  unknown  quarter;  soldiers  blamed 
the  general  and  slaughtered  him.  Loyal  troops 
arrived  last  night  at  the  Baltic  Station  and 
were  met  there  by  a  revolutionary  regiment 
with  a  bloody  battle  as  a  result  and  much  wreck- 
age of  property.  W.^s  brother-in-law,  a  Fin- 
nish officer  in  the  Russian  army,  was  in  the 
Officers'  Club  shortly  after  the  attack  on  the 
building,  and  in  the  washroom  stumbled  over 
the  body  of  a  general  and  that  of  a  captain,  both 
of  which  had  been  overlooked  in  cleaning  up. 

W.  told  us  that  his  brother-in-law  and  other 
officers  had  signed  an  agreement  with  the 
Duma  but  that  when  it  was  published  it  had 
been  materially  changed.  They  telephoned  a 
complaint  to  President  Rodzianko  who  sent 
Purishkevich  (conservative  deputy  from  Kursk 
and  reputed  slayer  of  Rasputin)  with  an  apol- 
ogy and  a  promise  to  make  the  necessary  cor- 
rection. 

The  officers  of  the  garrison  have  all  been 


132  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

obliged  to  present  themselves  at  the  Duma  and 
take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  new  government ; 
and  those  who  refused  have  been  arrested.  De- 
spite the  hostihty  of  the  enlisted  men,  now  all- 
powerful,  one  sees  hundreds  of  officers  walking 
the  streets  with  utmost  unconcern. 

The  rumors  of  the  day  are  that  Stiirmer  has 
died  of  heart-disease;  that  the  Socialists  are 
gaining  and  have  rejected  the  cabinet  they 
agreed  to  last  night ;  that  the  Eussian  flag  has 
been  hauled  down  and  the  red  flag  has  replaced 
it  on  the  Duma;  that  the  Tsarevich  is  very  ill 
and  the  royal  family  will  not  join  the  Tsar  un- 
til the  child  is  better.  The  Tsar's  abdication 
is  still  wrapped  in  uncertainty. 

We  hear  that  Protopopoff  bad  all  the  police 
organised  for  defence,  rifles  and  machine-guns 
^planted  in  convenient  places  throughout  the 
city  and  a  regular  campaign  planned.  If  this 
is  so,  it  explains  the  desperate  foolishness  of 
the  sniping  and  wild  shooting  by  police  agents, 
— the  poor  dupes  thinking  that  they  were  play- 
ing their  parts  in  a  successful  suppression  of 
the  revolt.  When  Protopopolf  gave  himself 
up,  the  story  runs,  he  gave  to  Kerensky  a  full 
plan  of  the  defence  system;  and  the  soldiers 
who  were  sent  out  found  policemen  and 
weapons  in  practically  everj^  place  listed.    They 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  133 

even  found  macliine-giins  in  the  towers  of  St. 
Isaac's  Cathedral.  AVas  this  betrayal  of  his 
agents  an  honest  effort  to  stop  bloodshed  or  a 
crafty  attempt  by  Protopopoff  to  buy  himself  a 
little  clemency  from  the  powers-that-be  ? 

A  very  clever  Russian,  who  until  recently 
was  minister  to  China,  came  in  this  morning 
with  a  story  of  a  truly  hair-raising*  escape. 
He  lives  in  a  house  from  the  roof  of  which  some 
uncaught  lunatic  was  sniping  this  morning. 
Soldiers  entered  his  apartment  and  found  a 
window  open  and  near  it  a  rifle  belonging  to 
his  son.  They  arrested  him,  tore  him  away  from 
his  wife,  and  led  him  off  to  be  shot.  At  the 
street-door  there  was  a  demonstration  and  a 
woman  threatened  him  with  a  butcher  knife; 
he  described  the  scene  as  worthy  of  the  French 
Revolution.  He  was  put  on  a  truck,  he  said,  be- 
tween a  g-uard  of  two  drunken  soldiers  but  was 
able  to  explain  his  liberal  sentiments  satisfac- 
torily to  an  under-officer, — to  whom  he  slipped 
some  money, — and  was  allowed  to  escape. 

Huntington  and  I  started  out  for  news  and 
went  over  to  the  Novoye  Vremya  editorial 
rooms.  On  the  way  we  saw  many  groups  of 
people  who  were  listening  to  loud-voiced  volun- 
teers reading  the  news-sheets,  but  no  sign  of 


134  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  inflammatory  street-speaking  which  we  all 
dreaded  so  much.  The  possible  triumph  of  the 
extreme  radicals  is  now  the  greatest  threat  to 
the  success  of  the  Revolution. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Vremya  are  in  an 
obscure  side  street,  but  we  recognised  them 
afar  by  the  long  line  of  people  waiting  for  bul- 
letins. We  went  upstairs  to  the  head  office 
where  the  doorkeeper  speedily  introduced  us 
to  two  youthful  Suvorins,  owners  of  the  Novo- 
ye  Vremya  and  the  Vechernyeye  Vremya. 
These  papers  have  always  been  conservative, 
sometimes  painfully  anti-liberal.  Now  their 
owners  say  that  the  revolution  is  complete  and 
is  a  fine  thing  for  Russia.  They  mention  with 
unconcealed  amusement  the  fact  that  their  po- 
litical editor,  a  notorious  reactionary,  has  fled 
and  was  seen  yesterday  in  Moscow  headed 
south.    They  do  not  expect  him  to  return. 

They  introduced  us  to  the  entire  staff  and 
sent  out  to  the  reporters'  room  for  the  latest 
news.  Meanwhile  they  told  us  that  the  rumor 
of  a  split  between  the  Duma  and  the  socialists 
was  untrue  and  that  the  socialist  parties  were 
in  full  sympathy  with  the  new  ministry.  Among 
the  latter,  they  praised  especially  Guchkoff  as 
a  man  of  vast  ability  and  firmness. 

The  Tsar  abdicated  at  Pskoif  at  three  yes- 


The  New  Order  Eeplaces  the  Old  135 

terday  afternoon.  Guchkoff — whom  he  had 
often  described  as  the  most  dangerous  man  in 
the  Empire — was  the  minister  charged  with  pro- 
curing his  signature  to  the  abdication.  Gen. 
Euzsky  and  the  deputy  Bublikoff  accompanied 
Guclikoff. 

They  had  no  news  of  a  German  advance  at 
Riga  nor  of  a  revolution  at  Berlin. 

Our  old  friend  Shershevsky  showed  us  the  gal- 
ley-proof of  the  new  government's  programme. 
The  ministers  propose  to  hold  office  only  until 
a  constitutional  convention  elected  by  a  uni- 
versal direct  secret  ballot  can  be  assembled  to 
determine  the  future  form  of  government. 
About  this,  Shershevsky  said  to  us:  ''Who 
knows  what  it  will  be?  A  monarchy  is  dread- 
fully expensive.  If  the  Chinese  can  have  a  re- 
public, surely  we  Russians  can." 

"When  we  returned  to  the  Embassy  with  our 
news,  we  learned  of  one  new  phase  of  the  situ- 
ation. A  Mr.  Smith  had  come  in  to  apply  for 
a  new  passport.  Last  night  a  group  of  men 
in  soldiers'  uniforms  came  to  his  apartment 
and  demanded  to  search  it.  He  asked  for  their 
authority  and  they  showed  a  paper  which  he 
saw  was  not  genuine ;  but  as  they  covered  both 
him  and  his  wife  with  their  rifles  and  were  de- 
cidedly rough  customers,  he  had   to   submit. 


136  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

While  they  were  searching,  a  neighbor's  maid 
came  in,  and  learning  the  situation  escaped  be- 
fore they  could  stop  her.  Soon  tramping  was 
heard  below  and  the  soldiers  fled,  just  as  a 
squad  of  the  new  City  Militia  appeared.  The 
latter  denounced  the  late  visitors  as  released 
criminals  and  asked  if  the  Smiths  had  lost  any- 
thing. At  the  time  Mr.  Smith  did  not  know  that 
the  intruders  had  gotten  away  with  a  small 
hand-bag  of  his  wife's  and  with  a  pocket-book 
containing  his  passport.  So  he  let  the  militia 
go,  and  later  discovered  his  loss. 

The  emptying  of  all  the  jails  has  not  helped 
the  orderliness  of  the  situation, — which  how- 
ever is  wonderfully  good  under  the  circum- 
stances. A  bulletin  to  householders,  issued  by 
the  new  city  government,  states  that  no 
searches  need  be  permitted  unless  the  search- 
ers show  a  warrant  from  the  National  Duma 
and  that  householders  may  arm  for  defence 
and  shoot  dowm  intruders  if  necessary. 

Pettit  arrived  from  Moscow  at  noon.  He 
says  that  the  revolution  in  that  city  was  very 
quiet,  and  that  he  only  heard  of  four  deaths: 
two  policemen,  an  officer,  and  a  civilian.  On 
Tuesday,  when  the  news  arrived,  one  regiment 
remained  loyal  and,  withdrawing  to  the  Krem- 
lin, prepared  to  defend  itself;  but  on  Wednes- 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  137 

day  the  soldiers  thought  better  of  it  and  gave 
up  without  a  struggle. 

The  Tsarevich  is  reported  to  have  died  of 
measles  this  morning, — that  boy  has  as  many 
lives  as  old  Franz  Joseph  had. 

After  luncheon,  we  saw  a  socialist  procession 
going  up  the  Sergievskaya  toward  the  Duma, 
singing  the  Marseillaise  and  carrying  a  banner 
''Down  with  the  Regency."  It  was  not  a  very 
formidable  demonstration,  not  more  than  three 
or  four  hundred  forlornities. 

Then  we  stopped  to  laugh  at  some  clumsy 
men  trying  to  take  do^vn  a  Romanoff  coat-of- 
arms  from  above  the  shop  of  the  apothecary 
Goldberg;  they  perched  on  the  roof  tree  and 
struggled  to  detach  it  from  numerous  wires  and 
to  lower  it  without  breakage.  Goldberg  evi- 
dently thought  that  he  might  need  it  again. 
The  women  in  a  breadline  right  below  smiled 
as  if  they  knew  better. 

On  the  Fourshtadskaya  we  met  Capt.  Fames 
who  gave  us  a  budget  of  interesting  news.  The 
Tsar's  abdication  took  the  form  of  placing  him- 
self in  the  hands  of  the  national  Duma.  The 
Duma  now  advocates  that  as  soon  as  possible 
there  be  a  nation-wide  plebiscite  on  the  basis  of 
universal  manhood  suffrage,  to  determine 
whether  there  shall  be  (1)  a  constitutional  mon- 


138  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

archy  like  England,  (2)  an  executive  republic 
like  the  United  States,  or  (3)  a  legislative  re- 
public hke  France.  This  proposition  is  meet- 
ing with  great  favor  among  the  socialists.  A 
demonstration  was  called  for  two  o'clock  in 
front  of  the  Circus  at  the  Simeonovskaya  and 
the  Fontanka,  to  protest  against  the  regency; 
and  it  resolved  itself  into  a  boost  for  the  plebis- 
cite. 

Capt.  Fames  had  also  heard  of  bread  riots 
in  Berlin  and  the  breaking  of  windows  in  the 
Imperial  Palace  with  a  fire-hose. 

We  went  along  the  Liteiny  to  the  offices  of 
the  War  Industry  Committee ;  we  hoped  to  find 
there  Huntington's  friend  Klopitoff,  secretary 
to  War  Minister  Guchkoff,  and  through  him  to 
get  from  the  Minister  an  official  statement  of 
the  situation.  Klopitoff  was  not  there,  but  we 
fomid  a  most  business-like  organisation  at 
work  and  the  offices  a  hive  of  industry,  just  as  if 
revolutionary  demonstrations  were  not  passing 
the  windows  every  few  minutes. 

Thence  we  started  for  the  office  of  the  Bourse 
Gazette  down  in  the  wharf  district  of  New 
Holland,  about  three  miles  away.  On  the  Nev- 
sky,  we  passed  the  Vremya  office  where  a  single 
bulletin  in  each  window  announced  that  the 
Tsar  had  abdicated.'    The  bulletins  in  the  win- 


o 

5^ 


o 

^^ 
O 


3 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old  139 

dows  of  the  Russhaya  Volya,  further  down  the 
Nevsky,  read:  "Nikolai  Eomanoff  has  re- 
nounced the  throne  in  favor  of  his  son  Alexei 
with  the  Grand  Duke  Michael  as  regent.  The 
Grand  Duke  Michael  has  renounced  in  favor 
OF  THE  people."  On  another  bulletin  appeared 
the  Grand  Duke  Nikolai  Nikolaievich's  usual 
report  regarding  the  Caucasus  front  addressed 
not  to  the  Emperor  nor  to  the  General  Staff, 
but  to  the  War  Committee  of  the  Duma. 

All  along  the  Nevsky  shopkeepers  were  re- 
moving the  double-headed  eagles  and  the  Rom- 
anoff arms  from  store-fronts.  The  ice  of  the 
Ekaterinin  Canal  was  covered  with  the  wreck- 
age of  these  coats-of-arms.  We  wanted  souve- 
nirs but  everything  we  saw  was  too  big. 

At  the  Hotel  France  we  stopped  to  see  Orloff, 
the  manager,  and  found  him  wearing  the  white 
brassard  of  the  City  Militia.  This  organisation 
has  been  formed  to  take  the  place  of  the  defunct 
police-force.  It  is  made  up  of  volunteers,  in- 
cluding students,  civilians  and  a  few  soldiers, 
and  is  mustered  into  companies  according  to  the 
wards  of  the  city.  These  amateurs  seem  to  be 
doing  their  work  with  thoroughness  and  enthu- 
siasm. 

We  were  much  impressed  to  see  a  great  red 
flag  waving  over  the  Winter  Palace,  and  red 


140  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

cloth  draped  over  the  double-headed  eagles  in 
the  scroll-work  of  the  gates. 

We  found  the  Bourse  Gazette  people  very 
sceptical  about  the  permanence  of  the  revolu- 
tion. They  had  no  news  except  a  rumor  that 
Nikolai  Nikolaievich  was  to  be  restored  to  full 
command  of  all  the  armies  of  Kussia. 

To-day  has  seen  the  fifth  step,  the  exit  of  the 
Romanoffs.  On  the  whole  they  have  gone  very 
gracefully.  The  Tsarevich  is  said  to  have  been 
allowed  to  reign  twenty  minutes,  before  with- 
drawing in  favor  of  his  uncle.*  The  Grand 
Duke  Michael's  renunciation  of  the  throne  is  a 
typical  document  of  the  spirit  of  this  revolu- 
tion.   It  reads: 

"A  grave  burden  has  been  laid  upon  me  by 
the  wish  of  my  brother  who  has  transferred  to 
me  the  Imperial  Throne  of  All  the  Russias, 
at  a  time  when  we  are  in  the  midst  of  an  un- 
precedented war  and  uprising  of  the  people. 

''Inspired,  in  unison  with  the  whole  people, 
by  the  thought  that  above  all  is  the  welfare  of 
our  fatherland,  I  have  made  the  difficult  de- 
cision not  to  accept  the  supreme  authority  un- 
less such  is  the  will  of  our  great  people,  who 
must  now  determine  the  form  of  administra- 

*  This  is  incorrect.    The  Tsar  abdicated  for  himself  and  his 


The  New  Order  Replaces  the  Old    141 

tion  and  the  new  fundamental  law  of  the  Rus- 
sian Empire  by  the  popular  vote,  as  expressed 
through  their  representatives  in  a  constituent 
assembly. 

''Invoking  the  blessing  of  God,  I  beg  all  citi- 
zens of  the  Russian  dominion  to  submit  to  the 
temporary  government,  risen  and  clothed  with 
full  authority  by  the  initiative  of  the  Imperial 
Duma ;  this  until  such  time  as  a  constituent  as- 
sembly, which  shall  be  called  together  as  soon 
as  possible  on  the  basis  of  a  universal,  direct, 
equal  and  secret  ballot,  can  express  by  its  de- 
cision the  will  of  the  people  as  to  the  form  of 
administration. 

*' (Signed)  Michael. 

*'Petrograd,  March  3  (o.s.)  1917. '» 

I'm  going  to  find  out  who  drafted  the  above. 
It  doesn't  sound  like  a  Romanoff.  If  Michael 
did  it  himself,  he  is  the  statesman  of  the  family. 


CHAPTER  VII 

KECONSTRUCTION 

Saturday,  March  17.  Heavy  snow  this 
morning  and  plenty  of  men  out  shovelling  it. 
There  are  many  sleighs  on  the  streets, — the 
first  we  have  seen  this  week, — and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  city  is  entirely  normal  except  for 
the  lack  of  street-cars.  The  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Deputies  has  issued  a 
printed  call  to  the  street-car  employes  for  the 
resumption  of  service;  it  draws  attention  to 
the  removal  of  the  operating-handles  from  cars 
at  the  beginning  of  the  revolution  and  asks  that 
any  patriot  having  a  handle  in  his  possession 
return  it  to  the  Municipal  Office.  This  country 
has  for  months  been  stripped  of  extra  parts  for 
all  sorts  of  machinery,  and  the  removal  of  these 
handles  was  a  very  effective  way  to  assure  dis- 
continuation of  traction  service  when  the  work- 
ingmen  wished  to  paralyse  the  city  and  force 
a  crisis. 

The  programme  of  the  Temporary  Govern- 

142 


Reconstruction  143 

ment  which  we  saw  in  proof  at  the  Vremya  of- 
fice yesterday  consists  of  the  following: 

' '  1.  Full  and  immediate  amnesty  in  all  polit- 
ical and  religious  affairs,  including  terroristic 
attempts,  military  insurrection  and  agrarian 
crimes. 

'*2.  Liberty  of  word,  press,  assembly,  un- 
ions and  strikes. 

*'3.  Abolition  of  all  class,  religious  and  na- 
tionalistic limitations. 

''4.  Immediate  preparation  to  convoke,  on 
the  principle  of  universal,  equal,  direct  and  se- 
cret suffrage,  a  Constituent  Assembly  which 
will  establish  the  form  of  administration  and 
constitution. 

^'5.  Substitution  of  national  militia  for  po- 
lice, with  elected  leaders  and  subject  to  local 
administrations. 

'^6.  Election  of  local  administrations  by  uni- 
versal suffrage. 

*'7.  The  troops  taking  part  in  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  are  not  to  be  disarmed  nor 
taken  away  from  Petrograd. 

"8.  While  maintaining  strict  military  disci- 
pline in  service,  all  limitations  for  soldiers  in 
the  enjoyment  of  public  rights  as  held  by  other 
citizens  are  abolished. 

' '  The  fact  of  the  war  will  not  be  used  to  de- 


144  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

lay  the  carrying  out  of  the  above  reforms  and 
measures.'* 

Having  made  itself  strong  with  the  obstrep- 
erous Petrograd  garrison  by  promulgating  the 
remarkable  No.  7, — which  purchases  temporary 
power  at  a  tremendous  cost  in  future  trouble, 
— the  new  ministry  is  proceeding  in  a  thorough 
and  effective  way  to  put  into  force  the  more 
enlightened  parts  of  its  programme.  Most  of  the 
Americans  in  Petrograd  are  enthusiastic  and 
wish  to  help  the  new  order  in  every  way  pos- 
sible. 

Thanks  to  me,  the  United  States  almost  rec- 
ognised the  temporary  government  this  after- 
noon. I  started  out  to  conduct  a  party  consist- 
ing of  Barry,  Piatt  and  Turner  to  the  Duma  to 
pick  up  the  latest  news.  We  went  to  the  east 
gate  as  before,  and  presented  our  letters  of 
identification  to  the  sentry,  who  again  scanned 
them  long  and  carefully, — especially  the  seals, 
— and  then  passed  us  into  the  building;  Barry 
had  no  credentials  but  we  said  airily  that  he 
was  one  of  our  party.  Once  inside  we  threaded 
our  way  to  the  Ekaterinsky  Hall  and  persuaded 
a  mystified  doorkeeper  to  admit  us  to  the  jour- 
nalists' room.  We  recognised  no  American  or 
British  correspondents  there  and  so  mounted 
a  staircase  to  what  we  supposed  was  the  gal- 


Reconstruction  145 

lery  of  the  Duma  Chamber.  Instead  we  found 
ourselves  on  the  floor  of  the  Duma,  in  the  midst 
of  a  meeting  of  the  Soldiers'  Deputies.  We 
only  waited  long  enough  to  see  that  it  was  very 
animated, — so  much  so  that  our  sudden  ap- 
pearance, like  Fra  Lippo  Lippi's  at  the  Coro- 
nation of  the  Virgin,  caused  no  excitement 
whatsoever. 

Then  we  sought  the  lobby  and  began  in- 
quiring for  the  diplomatic  gallery.  I  ad- 
dressed several  ushers  in  my  best  Russian, 
which  was  so  good  that  unknown  to  us  they  got 
the  idea  that  we  were  a  delegation  of  American 
diplomats  come  to  '^recognise"  the  Duma.  We 
felt  that  their  excitement  and  the  speed  with 
which  they  led  us  to  the  office  part  of  the  build- 
ing were  not  warranted  by  the  circumstances, 
but  one  gets  excited  very  easily  these  days. 
Just  when  we  thought  we  were  about  to  re- 
ceive season-tickets  to  the  diplomatic  gallery, 
we  were  shown  all  unsuspectingly  into  the  ante- 
room of  the  President  of  the  Duma.  There 
we  were  welcomed  by  a  Polish  deputy,  who 
luckily  spoke  French.  This  simple  enthusias- 
tic soul  discoursed  to  us  long  and  eloquently 
on  the  great  service  President  Wilson  had  done 
for  Poland,  by  recommending  Polish  independ- 
ence in  his  peace  message  to  the  Senate.    (All 


146  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  Poles  over  here  feel  that  way.)  Then  he 
said  something  about  getting  the  President  and 
hurried  off. 

I  was  beginning  to  realise  the  situation 
when  he  came  back  with  a  big  man  of  very 
easy  bearing  and  impressive  presence,  a 
calm  soHd  grey-bearded  man  who  made  one  feel 
that  he  commanded  the  situation.  This  man  re- 
minded me  of  the  glimpse  I  had  had  of  Rodzi- 
anko  and  I  addressed  him  in  French  by  that 
name.  He  replied  in  perfect  English,  "I  am 
not  Rodzianko.  I  am  large  and  look  something 
like  him  but  I  am  Guchkoff."  I  had  nothing 
ready  to  say,  of  course,  but  was  telling  him 
that  we  were  a  group  of  American  citizens  who 
were  most  enthusiastic  about  the  tremendous 
step  forward  which  Russia  was  taking,  when 
a  breathless  boy  arrived  with  the  message  that 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma  would 
see  the  American  delegation.  I  immediately 
said :  ' '  M.  Guchkoff,  we  cannot,  of  course,  think 
of  taking  up  the  time  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, proud  as  we  should  be  to  meet  that  body. 
We  are  not  a  delegation  and  it  is  the  part  of 
our  Ambassador,  not  of  us,  to  confer  with  the 
body  which  is  ruling  Russia.  Like  all  Ameri- 
cans, we  are  keenly  interested  in  the  wonderful 
work  of  organisation  you  are  doing,  and  enthu- 


Reconstruction  147 

siastic  about  the  liberation  of  this  country,  and 
we  have  come  to  watch  the  process."  I  think 
his  face  fell  a  little  when  he  heard  my  first 
words  but  he  was  very  cordial  and  told  us  that 
the  government  was  delighted  at  our  interest. 
He  did  not  seem  at  all  busy  or  careworn,  de- 
spite the  fact  that  he  is  Minister  of  War  and, 
temporarily,  of  the  Navy.  He  told  us  that  the 
Duma  was  not  in  session  but  that  the  meeting 
of  Soldiers'  Deputies  in  the  Assembly  Hall 
might  interest  us;  the  main  show,  however, 
was  the  military  delegation  in  front  of  the 
building,  which  he  understood  Mr.  Shidlovsky 
was  addressing.  We  thanked  him  heartily  and 
beat  a  retreat. 

Giving  up  all  thought  of  the  diplomatic  gal- 
lery we  went  once  more  into  the  Duma  Hall 
and  stood  in  an  inconspicuous  corner  be- 
hind the  seats  during  one  or  two  speeches. 
It  was  an  orderly  and  thoughtful  gathering  in 
the  main,  although  some  of  the  soldiers  in  the 
back  rows  were  reading  papers,  sleeping,  and 
paying  no  attention  to  the  proceedings. 

The  eagerness  of  the  Minister  for  American 
recognition  impressed  me  so  much  that  from 
the  Duma  I  went  straight  to  the  Embassy  and 
told  the  whole  story  to  the  Ambassador  and 
Counsellor  Wright. 


148  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

Our  ambassador  and  counsellor  have  been  the 
two  coolest  people  in  Petrograd  this  week  and 
the  way  they  have  kept  themselves  informed  of 
all  events,  have  valued  all  incidents  and  rumors 
and  have  diagnosed  the  whole  situation  is  a 
real  triumph  for  the  American  diplomatic  ser- 
vice. The  Ambassador's  vast  political  experi- 
ence gives  him  better  understanding  of  this 
popular  movement  than  any  other  diplomat  in 
Petrograd. 

I  have  been  at  the  Embassy  often  this  week 
and  the  entrance  has  always  been  unguarded 
except  for  the  retired  negro  prize-fighter  who 
acts  as  doorkeeper.  The  American  flag  over 
the  door  is  enough  protection  and  every  one 
within  is  tranquil  and  alert,  wholly  unhyster- 
ical,  but  quite  alive  to  the  world-wide  signifi- 
cance of  the  revolution. 

To-day  for  the  first  time  the  Military  Con- 
trol has  assigned  to  the  Embassy  a  guard  of 
honor.  It  consists  of  seven  soldiers,  husky 
good-looking  lads  from  a  guard  regiment;  at 
least  two  of  them  are  over  six-feet-four  in 
height.  Riggs  reports  that  the  English  and 
French  Embassies  each  have  a  guard  of  twenty- 
four  noblemen's  sons  from  the  Corps  des  Pages. 
I   am   willing   to   back   our   seven   doughboys 


Reconstruction  149 

against  any  twenty-four  pages  they  can  pro- 
duce. 

We  hear  that  the  number  of  dead  in  Petro- 
grad  is  only  about  three  hundred.  I  can  well 
believe  this.  The  killing  was  almost  all  one  by 
one.  We  can  find  no  confirmation  of  the  ru- 
mor of  group  executions  or  slaughter.  The 
spirit  of  the  governing  powers  is  too  clement 
and  that  of  the  people  too  happy  and  good- 
natured,  to  make  these  stories  probable. 

If  it  had  not  been  for  the  entire  lack  of  strong 
liquor,  there  would  have  been  quite  another 
tale  to  tell.  The  situation  on  Monday  had  the 
makings  of  a  French  Revolution,  and  many 
people  here  expected  momentarily  a  reign  of 
terror.  Vodka  unquestionably  would  have  pre- 
cipitated it. 

There  is  nailed  up  to-day  in  every  food  store 
an  official  schedule  of  the  prices  which  may  be 
charged  for  provisions,  all  a  few  kopecks  lower 
than  the  pre-revolutionary  prices. 

Sunday,  March  18.  We  read  this  morning  of 
the  first  meeting  of  the  Holy  Synod  with  its  new 
"Ober-Procuror,"  Mr.  Lvoff.  The  Metropoli- 
tan of  Kief  presided  and  the  attendance  was 
only  subject  to  comment  because  of  the  absence 
of  Peterim,  Metropolitan  of  Petrograd,  who 
had  refused  to  accept  the  new  order  and  had 


150  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

been  deposed.  The  presiding  metropoUtan  ex- 
pressed great  joy  at  welcoming  such  a  devoted 
son  of  the  church  as  Mr,  Lvoff.  The  latter  re- 
plied that  he  was  glad  to  be  the  man  to  institute 
the  policy  of  a  church  absolutely  free  from  po- 
litical control.  He  proposed  that  as  a  sign  of 
emancipation  from  mundane  domination  the 
Imperial  throne  be  removed  from  the  Synod 
Hall.  This  proposal  was  promptly  adopted.  It 
was  also  agreed  that  the  prayers  for  the  Tsar 
and  the  Imperial  Family  should  be  struck  out  of 
the  liturgy. 

It  is  impossible  to  tell  from  the  newspaper 
account  what  the  real  attitude  of  the  higher 
clergy  was  to  the  formalities  of  this  meeting. 
The  religious  spirit  of  Russia  is  a  tremendous 
force,  but  it  has  been  confined  in  the  framework 
of  a  paralysed  and  paralysing  political  system. 
If  Mr.  Lvoff's  proposal  of  complete  liberty  is 
carried  out  and  the  church  divorced  from  lay 
politics,  it  will  be  one  of  the  great  accomplish- 
ments of  the  revolution. 

The  church  services  to-day  finished  early, 
for  the  priests  in  omitting  all  reference  to  the 
Imperial  Family  had  to  cut  out  a  full  third  of 
the  service.  At  noon  the  streets  were  crowded 
with  a  holiday  throng.  The  day  was  cold  and 
clear  and  the  snow-quilt  on  the  Neva  glistened 


Reconstruction  151 

dazzlingly.  Up  and  down  above  the  river 
wheeled  a  buzzing  aeroplane. 

We  found  that  the  Liteiny  barricade  was 
gone.  We  examined  the  ruins  of  the  burnt 
Law  Courts  nearby  with  the  idea  of  getting 
souvenirs,  but  the  courtyard  and  passages  were 
filled  with  Kussians  who  seemed  to  be  far 
more  energetic  trophy-hunters  than  ourselves. 
Only  during  the  last  two  days  has  ''collecting" 
been  a  safe  occupation.     Earlier  in  the  week 

pretty  Mrs.  D stopped  before  the  ruins  of 

a  police  station  to  pick  up  an  iron  shield  half 
buried  in  debris,  but  was  greeted  with  a  chal- 
lenge and  turning  found  herself  looking  into 
the  rifle  of  a  very  determined  soldier.  She 
promptly  said:  "I  want  to  take  this  back  to 
America  as  a  souvenir  of  the  Great  Revolution, 
to  show  it  to  my  grandchildren  and  great-grand- 
children when  I  tell  them  that  I  was  there  w^hen 
Russia  was  freed."  The  soldier  grinned 
broadly  and  selecting  a  moujik  from  the  crowd 
which  had  gathered  ordered  him  to  carry  the 
shield  home  for  her. 

After  lunch  Huntington's  doctor,  who  has 
an  official  position  w^th  the  Nikolaieff  R.  R. 
and  hence  is  a  government  officer,  came  to  ex- 
amine our  convalescing  maid.  The  cook  asked 
him  if  he  could  get  her  some  flour.    He  said  that 


152  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

in  the  days  before  the  revolution  he  could  get 
all  he  wanted,  but  that  now  he  had  no  inside 
track.  In  the  old  days,  there  were  more  grafts 
than  a  foreigner  could  imagine.  The  police 
always  kept  on  hand  great  stores  of  everything, 
which  they  had  forced  from  the  shop-keepers, 
and  did  a  very  profitable  merchandising  busi- 
ness on  the  side.  Government  officials  could 
always  get  their  share  of  the  loot. 

We  went  to  call  upon  some  apartment- 
dwellers  on  the  French  Quay  and  found  the 
street-front  of  our  first  objective  guarded  by 
sailors.  We  approached  the  sentry  at  the  front 
door,  who  promptly  placed  the  muzzle  of  a  re- 
volver against  the  fourth  button  of  my  overcoat 
and  said  something  in  Russian,  which  I  took 
to  mean  that  our  room  was  preferable  to  our 
company.  We  retreated  with  dignity  into  the 
crowd  and  waited  until  the  cordon  drove  away 
in  a  truck.  When  we  entered  the  building  we 
found  other  sailors  ransacking  the  apartments 
of  the  All-Russian  National  Club  on  the  third 
floor. 

We  heard  from  the  De  Wetters,  on  whom 
we  called,  another  story  of  the  ''battle  of 
Liteinia"  last  Monday.  From  the  windows  of 
their  apartment  they  saw  soldiers  take  cover 
under  the  arched  stone  railings  of  the  Alexan- 


Reconstruction  153 

drovsky  Bridge  and  lie  there  firing.  In  the 
midst  of  the  fusillade  a  placid  old  horse-vehicle 
came  rambling  out  of  the  Liteiny  and  jaunted 
slowly  across  the  bullet-swept  bridge  as  if  it 
were  on  a  country  road.  This  is  perfectly  in 
keeping  with  the  popular  indifference  to  rifle- 
fire  which  we  have  seen  everywhere. 

We  also  heard  from  them  the  tale  of  the  es- 
cape of  a  most  courteous  policeman  usually  on 
duty  in  front  of  the  French  Embassy.  Early 
in  the  week  he  slunk  into  the  entrance  way  of 
their  building  in  street  clothes  and  begged  the 
Swiss  to  give  him  a  big  overcoat  as  a  disguise, 
because  otherwise  the  mob  would  kill  him.  All 
the  Swiss  had  to  offer  was  the  coat  of  the 
D.'s  chauffeur;  the  policeman  took  this  and 
disappeared,  but  he  left  a  bank  book  showing  a 
balance  of  120  roubles,  to  be  drawn  in  payment 
for  the  coat  if  he  failed  to  come  back. 

A  Baltic  Eussian  living  in  a  big  apartment 
building  near  here  saw  policemen  firing  from 
the  roof,  and  sent  a  servant  to  notify  the  sol- 
diers. When  they  came,  the  dvornik  told  them 
that  the  policeman  story  was  a  lie,  but  said  that 
there  was  a  German  count  living  upstairs,  and 
directed  them  to  the  Balticker's  rooms.  The  po- 
licemen were  thus  given  time  to  escape,  while 
the  innocent  citizen  was  led  away  to  the  Duma. 


154  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

There  a  Deputy  heard  his  story  and  apolo- 
gised to  him  profusely.  ' '  We  know  you  are  all 
right,"  said  this  official,  "but  we  must  detain 
you  here  an  hour,  for  the  crowds  are  bringing  up 
all  the  prisoners  they  take,  in  the  belief  that  we 
give  them  a  full  trial,  and  the  Duma  does  not 
care  to  dispel  the  illusion."  So  the  Balticker 
sat  for  an  hour  with  a  distinguished  general 
and  a  couple  of  minor  bureaucrats  v\^ho  were  in 
the  same  predicament  and  then  they  were  given 
safe-conducts  and  sent  home. 

As  soon  as  people  began  to  realise  that  ar- 
rest by  the  populace  brought  with  it  a  guarantee 
of  future  safety,  hundreds  gave  themselves  up 
and  asked  to  be  arrested.  These  were  mostly 
bureaucrats  of  the  lower  grades  who  had  been 
honestly  doing  their  best  to  serve  Russia  even 
in  that  rotten  system. 

We  dined  with  two  American  gentlemen  at 
the  Hotel  Europe.  They  told  us  that  another 
American  guest  of  the  hotel,  a  friend  of  theirs, 
had  on  two  occasions  seen  the  window  through 
which  he  was  looking  shattered  by  bullets.  The 
Europe  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  district 
which  was  the  last  battle-ground  of  the  police. 

We  also  heard  an  interesting  story  of  pre- 
revolution  conditions.  An  American  who  had 
been  in  Berlin  just  before  the  war  and  knew 


Reconstruction  155 

various  members  of  the  German  government, 
was  driving  down  the  Nevsky  recently  and  saw 
in  a  passing  sleigh  a  man  whom  he  recognised 
as  an  employe  of  the  German  foreign  office. 
Being  quite  sure  of  the  identification  he  went 
to  Police  Headquarters  and  told  them  about 
it.  They  said,  ''Yes,  he  is  one  of  four  who  are 
here ;  we  know  all  about  them,  but  we  have  in- 
structions from  higher  up  to  leave  them  alone." 

All  automobile  owners  have  received  notices 
from  the  City  Hall  that  if  their  motors  were 
commandeered  and  if  they  can  identify  them, 
they  will  now  receive  them  back  and  the  City 
will  pay  rental  for  their  use  as  well  as  a  com- 
pensation for  any  damage  done.  This  is  surely 
something  new  in  revolutionary  procedure. 

Monday,  March  20.  The  Minister  of  Justice 
has  to-day  declared  that  he  will  not  continue 
the  legal  steps  begun  against  the  slayers  of  Ras- 
putin. The  Grand  Duke  Dmitri  Pavlovich  and 
Prince  Yussupoff  have  been  notified  that  they 
can  return  to  Petrograd  without  fear. 

Prof.  B lunched  with  us,  and  as  he  is  one 

of  the  ablest  men  of  the  new  order,  we  kept  him 
for  hours,  and  got  from  him  many  Russian 
sidelights  on  the  Revolution. 

I  asked  him  first  how  many  people  had  been 
killed  and  he  replied  that  there  was  no  definite 


156  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

count  but  his  belief  was  that  there  were  about 
a  thousand.  He  knew  of  few  cases  where  the 
dead  had  been  very  numerous  in  one  place,  but 
said  that  in  a  city  of  2,000,000  inhabitants  a 
thousand  single  deaths  were  quite  possible  in 
such  a  revolution.  He  confirmed  the  story 
about  the  battle  at  the  Baltic  Station;  the 
Anitchkoff  Palace  was  another  scene  of  heavy 
fighting,  as  a  strong  force  of  police  sought  ref- 
uge there.  I  have  recently  passed  the  palace 
and  its  fagade  is  thickly  pock-marked  with  bul- 
let-holes. 

Huntington  came  in  and  during  the  greetings 
B.  told  us  in  confidence  that  he  had  just  been 
appointed  an  assistant  minister  in  the  new  gov- 
ernment. He  is  to  be  especially  charged  with 
American  relations,  a  subject  in  which  the  whole 
cabinet  feels  the  deepest  interest. 

The  ministry  desires  to  open  every  possible 
facility  for  American  trade  and  will  impose 
no  more  red  tape  than  is  absolutely  necessary. 
They  are  keen  for  America's  interest  and  un- 
derstanding. A  great  new  Government  Loan  in 
dollars  will  be  negotiated  if  possible,  the  pro- 
ceeds to  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  Russian  mer- 
chants to  buy  goods  in  the  United  States.  I 
told  B.  that  the  principal  obstacle  would 
be  the  lack  of  understanding,  on  the  part  of 


Reconstruction  157 

Americans,  as  to  the  stability  of  the  revolution 
and  the  safety  of  buying  Russian  bonds;  it 
would  be  necessary  first  to  win  the  confidence 
of  the  American  people  and  then  such  a  pro- 
gramme could  be  on  as  large  a  scale  as  he  de- 
sired. 

This  attitude  toward  us  and  our  trade  is  a 
complete  change  from  the  petty  hampering 
stand  of  the  late  government.  If  the  new  order 
puts  through  the  big  internal  loan  of  Free  Rus- 
sia and  then  can  gain  the  confidence  of  America 
and  England  we  will  see  Russian  commerce 
spring  to  life  and  Russia  itself  leap  ahead  with 
tremendous  strides. 

B.  told  us  of  the  selection  of  his  friend 
Tereshchenko  as  Minister  of  Finance.  The  lat- 
ter has  had  charge  of  foreign  exchange  prob- 
lems as  a  vice-president  of  the  War  Industry 
Committee  and  has  done  wonderfully  well.  The 
Temporary  Committee  of  the  Duma  did  not 
dare  to  suggest  a  banker  for  the  finance  minis- 
try for  fear  of  antagonising  the  socialists  and 
could  not  find  a  single  revolutionary  leader  who 
was  a  trained  economist.  So  Tereshchenko, 
who  is  thirty-three  years  old,  a  sugar-beet  king 
from  Little  Russia  and  a  liberal  of  very  radical 
tendencies,  was  selected. 


158  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

Lvoff,  the  new  Procurator  of  the  Synod,  is 
spoken  of  by  B.  as  a  deeply  religious  man, 
much  more  sincerely  so  than  many  of  the  arch- 
bishops. He  has  fought  for  years  for  the  re- 
moval of  lay  interference  in  religious  aifairs, 
and  has  himself  been  a  very  active  worker  in 
the  Orthodox  Church.  No  selection  for  Pro- 
curator could  arouse  more  confidence. 

Kerensky,  the  social  revolutionary  who  is 
Minister  of  Justice,  is  showing  up  very  well. 
He  is  clever  and  fearless  and,  now  that  the  revo- 
lution which  was  the  first  article  of  his  political 
creed  has  taken  place,  he  is  working  out  the  rest 
of  his  programme  in  a  way  that  is  reasonable, 
constructive  and  humanitarian.  When  Sukhom- 
linoff  was  arrested,  the  soldiers  wanted  to  kill 
him,  but  Kerensky  protected  him  with  his  own 
body  and  outspread  arms,  saying,  ''You  will 
have  to  kill  me  first ! ' '  They  insisted  then  that 
the  shoulder-straps  be  cut  off  Sukhomlinoff 's 
uniform,  and  the  minister  got  scissors  and  did 
the  job  himself.  Kerensky  is  the  idol  of  the 
people,  and  everything  he  does  makes  him  more 
popular. 

Protopopoif  the  Arch-Bureaucrat  surren- 
dered to  Kerensky  the  Socialist, — the  irony  of 
fate.  B.  has  heard  that  the  fallen  minister 
gave  his  captor  a  large  map  of  Petrograd  with 


Reconstruction  159 

all  the  police-hiding  places  marked  on  it.  He 
cannot  verify  the  story,  but  says  that  the  speed 
with  which  the  police  ''nests"  were  found  and 
raided  gives  color  to  it.  He  firmly  believes 
that  these  police  retreats  were  not  designed  for 
defem,ce,  hut  for  the  attack  and  slaughtering  of 
the  people  to  cow  them  and  to  forestall  a  rev- 
olution. 

Some  of  the  members  of  the  late  ministry 
have  the  sincere  respect  of  their  successors. 
Pekrovsky  who  held  the  foreign  portfolio  is 
everywhere  spoken  of  as  an  excellent  man  and 
an  efficient  minister.  To  him  and  to  Eittich, — 
despite  the  latter 's  German  name, — the  Revolu- 
tion paid  the  high  tribute  of  not  arresting  them 
nor  disturbing  them  in  any  way.  Bark  was  put 
temporarily  under  guard  but  was  not  taken 
from  his  apartments  in  the  Finance  Ministry. 

Our  guest  told  us  that  he  had  accompanied 
Guchkoff  on  a  tour  of  the  Caucasus  front  a  few 
months  ago  and  that  the  enthusiasm  which 
greeted  the  latter  was  tremendous.  With  his 
popularity  and  his  technical  knowledge  gained 
as  president  of  the  War  Industry  Committee 
Guchkoff  seems  an  ideal  selection  for  War  Min- 
ister. 

The  unofficial  organisations  like  the  War  In- 
dustry Committee,  the  General  Committee  of 


160  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  Zemstvo  Union,  and  the  Municipal  Union, 
will  now  lose  the  great  responsibility  which  has 
rested  on  them  through  the  failure  of  the  bu- 
reaucracy ;  and  the  great  work  which  they  were 
doing  will  go  on  much  more  easily  in  the  hands 
of  ministers  clothed  with  full  power.  The  bu- 
reaucracy took  every  action  it  could  to  hamper 
them,  such  as  imprisoning  the  labor  members 
of  the  War  Industry  Committee  and  preventing 
the  Zemstvo  Union  from  holding  public  meet- 
ings. 

The  proclamation  of  Grand  Duke  Michael  re- 
nouncing the  throne  was  drafted  by  Shulgin, 
aided  by  Miliukoff  and  Kerensky.  Shulgin  is 
a  Nationalist,  a  former  conservative  and  sup- 
porter of  Stolypin,  Miliukoff  a  Constitutional 
Democrat  and  an  advanced  liberal,  Kerensky 
a  Social  Laborite  of  the  extreme  left.  The 
whole  Executive  Committee  visited  the  Grand 
Duke  and  talked  the  situation  over  with  him, 
and  the  action  finally  taken  was  agreed  upon 
unanimously. 

According  to  B.,  the  leaders  of  the  Duma 
neither  expected  at  this  time,  nor  desired  the 
revolt  of  the  troops ;  in  fact  they  had  been  striv- 
ing to  postpone  the  inevitable  uprising  until 
after  the  war.  If  the  Semenovsky  had  beaten 
the  Volynians  in  the  Liteiny  last  Monday,  the 


Reconstruction  161 

revolution  miglit  have  been  a  failure,  the  Duma 
might  have  been  permanently  disbanded  and 
the  war  ended  by  a  separate  peace. 

The  "Winter  Palace  will  be  reconstructed  for 
the  meetings  of  the  Constitutional  Convention. 
Later  it  will  probably  be  used  for  the  Duma. 


CHAPTER  Vni 

ORDER   OR   CHAOS? 

Tuesday,  March  20.    P went  to  call  on 

the  new  Minister  of  Public  Enlightenment  to- 
day. With  twenty  people  in  the  ante-room 
this  young  American  educator  was  given 
precedence  and  had  a  good  ten-minute  talk  with 
the  minister.  Manuiloff  said  that  the  first  ef- 
fort of  the  government  in  educational  lines  was 
to  be  for  primary  schooling,  to  make  the  people 
fit  for  self-government.  They  will  model  the 
system  on  the  American,  with  all  government 
schools  free,  but  they  will  not  try  compulsory 
education  yet.  All  schools  will  be  open  to  every 
one  without  distinction  of  race  or  creed;  he 
specifically  stated  that  this  was  to  include  the 
Jews. 

The  street-cars  reappeared  to-day.  The  first 
one  came  across  the  Troitsk}^  Bridge  from  the 
Petersburg  side  with  a  band  playing  and  a 
great  red  banner  spread  aloft:  ^'Land  and  the 
Will  of  the  People." 

162 


Order  or  Chaos?  163 

I  went  to  the  Hotel  France  and  then  along 
the  Nevsky.  With  the  street-cars  in  operation, 
everything  looked  quite  normal.  There  were 
orderly  squads  of  soldiers  tramping  to  and  fro 
under  command  of  non-commissioned  officers, 
just  as  before  the  revolution. 

In  front  of  the  barracks  on  the  Fourstad- 
skaya,  the  street  was  crowded  with  ''awkward 
squads'*  of  newly-reported  recruits,  still  in  ci- 
vilian clothes;  they  were  being  put  through 
foot-drill  and  squad-formations  by  snappy, 
business-like  corporals.  There  was  no  sugges- 
tion of  the  new  freedom  either  in  the  discipline 
or  in  the  attitude  of  these  rookies  to  their  work. 

Had  tea  with  Mrs.  B.  W .     A  timorous 

American  came  in  with  a  fresh  crop  of  pessi- 
mistic rumors.  The  workmen  are  refusing  to 
go  back  to  the  munition  factories.  The  soldiers 
are  getting  surly  and  are  locking  up  their  offi- 
cers. The  socialists  are  demanding  the  expul- 
sion of  the  imperial  family  and  the  death  sen- 
tence on  all  prisoners  of  the  revolution.  A 
bad  revolt  has  occurred  at  Kronstadt,  with 
much  killing  of  officers.  There  has  been  an  up- 
rising at  Sevastopol  and  the  whole  Black  Sea 
fleet  set  sail  for  parts  unknown  as  soon  as  the 
news  of  the  Revolution  was  received.  Poor 
Russia,  if  one  believes   some  of  these  faint- 


164  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

hearts,  she  is  about  done  for.  We  think  that 
she  is  just  beginning. 

Wednesday/,  March  21.  W of  the  Em- 
bassy tells  me  on  the  authority  of  Tereshchen- 
ko  that  only  about  150  of  the  revolting  soldiers 
and  slightly  over  250  loyal  soldiers  and  officers 
were  killed  in  the  revolution.  The  loss  of  civil- 
ians, including  policemen,  was  about  500.  Less 
than  a  thousand  in  all, — little  enough  for  such 
a  result!  The  Council  of  Deputies  is  planning 
to  have  a  great  funeral  for  the  revolutionary 
dead  in  front  of  the  "Winter  Palace  on  Friday. 

Kerensky  has  given  out  an  official  statement 
that  the  socialist  demonstration  demanding 
death  for  the  prisoners  of  the  revolution  was 
organised  by  reactionary  agents,  in  an  attempt 
to  upset  the  nice  balance  of  the  present  duma- 
socialist  entente. 

I  am  one  of  a  number  commissioned  by  the 
Embassy  people  to  notice  whether  soldiers  are 
saluting  officers  and  whether  the  latter  are  al- 
lowed to  wear  swords.  The  attitude  of  the  en- 
listed men  toward  those  of  the  higher  grades 
has  been  a  menacing  factor  throughout.  In 
my  walks  about  town  to-day  I  saw  only  two 
soldiers  give  the  salute,  but  many  of  the  rest 
had  the  decency  to  look  the  other  way  when 
they  passed  their  superiors.    We  saw  three  or 


Order  or  Chaos?  165 

four  of  the  latter  wearing  swords,  but  most 
were  without  them. 

A  courier,  just  arrived  at  the  Embassy  from 
Stockholm,  reports  that  the  Swedish  papers 
printed  very  lurid  articles  about  the  Revolu- 
tion. There  were  several  accounts,  for  in- 
stance, of  the  assassination  of  Sir  George  Bu- 
chanan, the  British  Ambassador. 

Thursday,  March  22.    H says  that  at  a 

reception  last  evening  he  met  one  of  the  gov- 
ernment censors  of  newspaper  cables.  The  lat- 
ter told  him  that  correspondents  are  now  al- 
lowed to  send  any  news  they  wish,  except  the 
number  of  troops  in  Petrograd  or  other  mili- 
tary information;  but  that  most  of  them  are 
sending  to  America  the  worst  slush  imagina- 
ble. 

When  I  called  at  the  Embassy  to-day  to  re- 
port on  saluting  and  sword-wearing,  I  met  the 
Ambassador  on  the  stairs,  and  he  said,  ''You 
will  be  glad  to  know  that  I  have  just  come  from 
the  Foreign  Office  where  I  have  announced  the 
recognition  of  our  government  and  made  ar- 
rangements for  a  formal  meeting  with  the  min- 
isters this  afternoon."  I  expressed  the  utmost 
joy.  It  is  a  great  coup  to  get  in  ahead  of  Rus- 
sia's allies  and  it  puts  the  United  States  in  the 
position  of  the  new  government's  best  friend. 


166  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

This  afternoon  the  Ambassador  and  his  en- 
tire official  staff,  ten  secretaries  of  embassy  and 
attaches,  drove  up  the  Nevsky  and  through  the 
business  centre  to  the  Palace  of  the  Imperial 
Council;  the  ambassadorial  sleigh  was  decked 
with  two  large  American  flags  and  in  one  of 
the  following  sleighs  rode  the  military  and  na- 
val attaches  in  the  striking  uniforms  of  staif 
officers.  At  the  palace  the  entire  Council  of 
Ministers  was  waiting  for  them.  Miliukoff 
introduced  them,  and  the  Ambassador  read  the 
cable  of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  said  a  few 
appropriate  words.  Prince  Lvoff  answered 
most  cordially  and  simply,  thanking  the  United 
States  for  this  first  recognition  of  the  new  gov- 
ernment. A  short  informal  reception  followed. 
The  ministers  had  all  come  directly  from  their 
offices  and  wore  sack-suits.  They  appeared 
careworn  but  much  elated  at  having  won  a 
place  among  the  nations  after  so  few  days  in 
office. 

We  hear  that  the  British,  French  and  Italian 
Embassies  sent  to  the  Foreign  Office  this  morn- 
ing identical  notes  of  recognition,  which  arrived 
only  a  couple  of  hours  after  Ambassador  Fran- 
cis' visit. 

Now  that  the  lid  is  off,  the  newspapers  print 
the  most  sensational  stories  every  day.    To-day 


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Order  or  Cliaos?  167 

there  is  a  particularly  lurid  account  of  the  ef- 
forts of  the  Tsar  to  reach  Tsarkoe  Selo— and 
his  masterful  consort — in  the  early  days  of  the 
revolution.  His  entourage  on  the  special  train 
were  mostly  drunk,  and  his  chamberlain  Voi- 
ekofP  continued  to  hide  from  him  the  fact  that 
Petrograd  was  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 
Finally  news  reached  the  train  that  the  army 
at  the  front  had  declared  for  the  revolution, 
and  it  suddenly  became  necessary  to  tell  the 
Tsar  that  his  reign  was  over.  Apparently  he 
acted  in  a  very  manly  way,  poor  little  chap. 
Voiekoff  is  said  to  have  urged  him  to  open  the 
Minsk  front  and  let  in  the  Germans ;  the  Tsar 
replied  that  Rasputin  had  long  ago  proposed 
such  a  step  but  that  he  had  always  refused. 

After  dinner  we  called  on  the  M s.    Here 

we  heard  of  the  treatment  of  their  Swedish 
maid  who  was  arrested  as  a  spy  before  the  rev- 
olution. She  was  stopped  at  Torneo,  after  leav- 
ing M.'s  service  to  go  home  and  get  mar- 
ried, and  was  brought  back  to  Petrograd.  She 
was  marched  on  foot  on  a  bitter  cold  night  the 
entire  two  miles  from  the  Finland  Station  to 
the  Secret  Police  near  the  Nikolaieff  Station. 
Here  she  was  cross-examined  by  the  judge  who 
is  the  third-degree  specialist  of  that  sinister 
organisation.    His  face  was  artificially  whit- 


168  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

ened,  with  great  blackened  lines  under  the  eyes 
to  make  him  especially  devihsh,  and  he  raved 
like  a  madman  and  threatened  terrible  punish- 
ments if  she  did  not  confess.  When  she  stead- 
ily refused  she  was  marched  all  the  way  back 
to  the  Finland  Station  and  made  to  spend  the 
night  in  a  chilly  waiting-room  with  soldiers 
watching  her  through  the  glass  doors  of  a  warm 
guard-room.  In  the  morning  they  led  her  back 
exhausted  but  she  kept  her  nerve  even  when 
threatened  with  death.  This  same  kind  of  spec- 
tacular intimidation  was  used  on  her  over  and 
over  again.  Finally  the  M.'s  learned  of  her 
arrest,  and  by  exerting  influence  with  various 
''high  personages,"  they  secured  her  release. 
The  judge  who  conducted  this  inquiry  is  prob- 
ably the  same  man  whom  A of  the  Embassy 

interviewed  about  D *  some  time  ago.    The 

judge  assumed  that  the  United  States  wished  to 

disavow  D and  was  furious  and  insulting 

when  he  found  that  he  was  wrong.    D says 

this  man  told  him  much  "inside  information" 
about  the  workings  of  the  secret  police,  saying, 
"I  only  teU  you  these  things  because  you  will 
never  leave  here  alive." 

*  An  American  citizen  arrested  as  a  spy  under  the  old  regime, 
but  released  in  the  wholesale  jail-delivery  at  the  beginning  of 
the  revolution. 


Order  or  Chaos?  169 

A.  hears  that  this  official  fled  on  the  first 
day  of  the  revolution  and  escaped.  M.,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  sure  that  he  was  torn  to 
pieces  by  the  mob  and  his  body  burned  on  a 
great  fire  composed  of  the  records  of  his  office. 

Mr.  M told  a  story  that  he  had  heard 

from  a  Swedish  manufacturer  who  was  making 
rifles  for  the  Russian  government.  These 
weapons  were  sorely  needed,  since  many  Rus- 
sian soldiers  were  going  into  battle  unarmed. 
But  the  chief  of  the  arsenal  refused  again  and 
again  to  accept  delivery,  although  the  rifles  had 
been  tested,  approved  and  paid  for.  Finally 
the  Swede  woke  up,  paid  the  usual  rake-off, 
and  so  got  the  consignment  accepted. 

The  munitions  factory  connected  with  the 
Artillery  Arsenal  was  in  full  operation  when 
we  crossed  the  Liteiny  at  about  11 :00  p.  m. 

Friday,  March  23.  The  Council  of  Work- 
men's and  Soldiers'  Deputies  seems  to  be  mod- 
erating its  radicalism.  The  proclamation  that 
soldiers  shall  elect  their  own  officers  has  been 
explained  away  by  a  statement  that  this  does 
not  mean  the  officers  for  military  matters  but 
those  to  represent  them  in  certain  intra-regi- 
mental  details.  Other  rash  actions  are  simi- 
larly withdrawn.    The  plan  to  bury  the  revolu- 


170  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

tionary  dead  in  the  Palace  Square  has  been 
speedily  abandoned. 

The  powers-that-be  are  still  much  concerned 
about  the  attitude  of  the  radicals  but  more  so 
about  the  disorganisation  of  the  army.  The 
Petrograd  garrison  is  quite  out  of  hand,  and 
many  soldiers  are  quitting  the  front  without 
leave.  The  War  Minister  has  issued  a  procla- 
mation predicting  a  great  German  advance  and 
trying  to  rally  the  army. 

We  heard  to-day  of  an  American  who  owns 
a  manufacturing  plant  in  Petrograd  and  whose 
factory  hands  now  refuse  to  work  full  time.  He 
lost  his  temper  and  fired  them  all  but  they  de- 
fied him  and  would  not  leave  the  building.  He 
consulted  an  influential  friend  who  said,  "If  I 
get  soldiers  to  protect  your  rights,  they  will 
join  your  workmen  in  making  trouble.  My  ad- 
vice to  you  is  to  eat  dirt  as  quickly  and  abjectly 
as  possible.  You  are  lucky  to  have  laborers 
who  will  work  at  all." 

The  American  Embassy  is  swamped  with  ap- 
plications from  Russian  officers  who  want  com- 
missions in  the  American  army. 

This  evening  I  started  for  Moscow.  At  the 
station  I  noticed  that  the  traffic  was  being  con- 
trolled by  high-school  boys  of  the  City  Militia 


Order  or  Chaos?  171 

and  that  they  showed  great  confidence,  skill 
and  courtesy. 

In  my  compartment  were  a  brigadier-general, 
a  colonel  and  a  captain,  all  bound  for  the  Cau- 
casus. The  captain  could  talk  French,  the  colo- 
nel German,  the  general  only  his  native  Rus- 
sian. Consequently  our  conversation  was  wor- 
thy of  the  day  of  Pentecost.  The  general 
showed  me  scars  where  a  bullet  had  entered  his 
skull  near  the  corner  of  his  left  eye  and  gone 
completely  through  and  out  at  the  back, — a  most 
unusual  wound  to  survive ;  he  had  also  had  both 
arms  broken  and  could  only  raise  them  a  little 
way  from  his  sides. 

The  captain  was  very  agreeable  and  we  had 
a  long  and  enthusiastic  talk  about  field  artil- 
lery, his  specialty.  I  asked  him  how  he  regard- 
ed the  disorganisation  of  the  troops  in  Petro- 
grad  and  he  expressed  confidence,  saying, 
"Cela  s'arrangera."  He  believes  that  the  rev- 
olution will  help  the  war. 

A  short  distance  out  of  the  station,  a  shabby 
bearded  man  with  a  huge  bow  of  red  ribbon  in 
his  lapel,  entered  the  compartment  followed  by 
a  squad  of  soldiers,  and  made  each  officer  show 
some  sort  of  a  paper.  He  never  even  glanced 
in  my  direction.    When  he  was  gone,  I  said, 


172  A  Diary  of  the  Eussian  Revolution 

''Qui  est  ce  f onctionnaire-la ? ' ^  but  the  captain 
rephed  almost  gruflfly, '' Je  ne  sais  pas.'* 

The  corridors  of  all  the  cars  were  full  of  sol- 
diers. I  do  not  know  whether  they  were  going 
to  the  Caucasus  or  taking  unauthorised  fur- 
loughs. They  treated  my  oflScer  friends  polite- 
ly, and  I  once  found  my  captain  talking  and 
laughing  with  a  group  of  them  as  if  they  were 
old  comrades.  As  he  was  obviously  an  aristo- 
crat and  a  dandy,  I  was  a  little  surprised  at  this 
fraternising. 

In  a  second-class  carriage  nearby  an  untidy 
socialist  was  arguing  against  the  war  and  was 
being  heatedly  controverted  by  all  present,  sol- 
diers, under-officers,  students  and  civilians. 
Anti-war  talk  isn't  popular. 

Saturday,  March  24.  Lots  of  freight  trains 
moving  now.  The  transportational  paralysis 
of  the  pre-revolution  period  is  gone. 

Many  of  the  passengers  showed  great  inter- 
est in  me  as  an  American  and  went  out  of  their 
way  to  show  me  courtesy.  They  examined  with 
approval  the  English-Eussian  grammar  which  I 
was  studying.  I  understand  enough  Eussian  to 
know  that  there  was  much  conversation  about 
America  and  Americans. 

At  our  office  in  Moscow  I  found  very 

pessimistic  about  the  situation.    He  spoke  de- 


Order  or  Chaos?  173 

spondently  of  uprisings  of  peasants  and  run- 
away-soldiers in  the  rural  districts  and  of  the 
looting  of  country-houses, — his  own  among 
them.  The  soldiers  believe  that  the  lands  of  the 
nobles  are  to  be  divided  at  once,  and  thousands 
of  them  have  left  the  trenches  without  permis- 
sion and  are  raising  disorder  in  the  provinces. 
Gen.  Brusiloff  has  officially  taken  notice  of  these 
absences  and  has  issued  a  proclamation  that  all 
soldiers  who  are  not  in  their  places  by  April  1 
(or  April  14,  new  style)  will  be  severely  pun- 
ished. 

The  revolution  here  in  Moscow  was  a  spon- 
taneous uprising  of  the  people,  almost  without 
violence.  A  few  troops  withdrew  to  the  Krem- 
lin and  to  the  Military  Garage  near  the  Uni- 
versity, but  when  field  guns  were  trained  on  the 
gates  of  both  places  they  surrendered.  This 
was  almost  the  only  excitement  and  there  was 
hardly  a  shot  fired.  The  crowds  on  the  streets 
were  immense  and  people  say  that  the  look  of 
exaltation  on  the  faces  of  the  throng  was  mar- 
vellous. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    TURN    TOWAED    ORDER 

Swiday,  March  25.  This  is  a  great  clay  for 
the  working  people,  their  first  full  holiday  on 
which  they  can  do  what  they  want  without  any 
restriction. 

All  the  servants  in  this  hotel  except  the  floor- 
waiters  are  off  for  the  day.  Last  night  the  res- 
taurant sent  a  great  variety  of  cold  meats  up 
to  our  room,  to  be  put  on  the  window-ledges 
and  kept  cool  for  to-day's  luncheon  and  din- 
ner.* 

The  papers  claim  that  500,000  people 
marched  in  to-day's  Liberty  Parade,  but  my 
guess  is  that  there  were  about  one-fourth  that 
number.  Whichever  estimate  is  right,  it  was 
a  unique  demonstration,  vast  in  extent  and 
wonderfully  well-ordered.  There  did  not  seem 
to  be  any  marshals  and  of  course  there  were 
no  police  visible.    The  crowd  along  the  line  of 

*  Later — The  robbers  who  run  the  hotel  charged  us  34  roubles 
(about  $11.00)  for  these  cold  meats. 

174 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  175 

march  behaved  beautifully,  and  the  groups  of 
marchers  kept  excellent  formation. 

Over  by  the  Iberian  Gate,  Fell  and  I  tried  to 
cross  the  line  of  march  to  go  up  to  the  Red 
Square.  We  pushed  through  the  lines  of  spec- 
tators and  started  to  make  our  way  between 
the  straggling  ranks  of  a  very  shabby  contin- 
gent of  workmen.  One  of  them,  on  the  flank 
toward  us,  begged  earnestly:  "Oh,  please 
don't  go  across;  or  you'll  spoil  our  order."  So 
we  waited.  This  was  the  spirit  of  the  crowd, 
one  of  conscientious  orderliness  and  of  great 
good-nature.  Of  course  this  couldn't  have 
been  done  but  for  the  prohibition  of  vodka. 

The  procession  itself  was  uneventful.  There 
were  hundreds  after  hundreds  of  groups  of 
soldiers,  workingmen  and  workingwomen,  all 
in  like  formation,  all  plodding  happily  along 
and  occasionally  breaking  into  a  modified  ver- 
sion of  the  Marseillaise.  This  song  tells  of  the 
liberation  of  the  workingman,  and  its  single 
verse  was  sung  over  and  over  again  with  great 
spirit  and  a  surprising  variety  of  keys ;  the  thin 
piping  of  the  women's  voices  at  times  made  it 
singularly  plaintive.  The  banners  carried  by 
the  squads  were  all  monotonously  alike,  red 
and  bearing  the  inscription,  ''Land  and  the 
Will  of  the  People,"  or  ''Welcome  Constituent 


176  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Eevolution 

Assembly,  Welcome  Social-Democratic  Labor 
Party." 

Up  on  the  Eed  Square,  we  found  great  crowds 
of  people  lining  a  broad  passageway  opened  di- 
agonally across  the  centre.  As  we  arrived  we 
heard  cheers,  and  from  somewhere  near  St.  Vas- 
sili's  there  galloped  a  squad  of  about  twenty 
cavalrymen,  racing,  jeering  at  one  another, 
and  shouting  gayly  at  the  people;  they 
reined  in  at  the  corner  of  the  Historical 
Museum,  but  many  of  them  were  carried  by 
their  impetus  down  the  hill  and  almost  into  the 
line  of  march  on  the  Voskresensky  Square  be- 
low. Behind  them  rode  the  new  military  gov- 
ernor and  his  staff,  the  former  a  full-faced, 
light-moustached,  jovial-looking  officer,  who  was 
hailed  with  great  enthusiasm  by  the  crowds. 
The  staif  were  all  mounted,  but  close  behind 
them  came  a  procession  of  automobiles  filled 
with  generals  and  colonels  in  full  uniform.  Ap- 
parently Moscow  feels  no  hostility  to  high  offi- 
cers or  to  military  display. 

As  we  returned  and  approached  the  line  of 
march  in  front  of  the  Shrine  of  the  Iberian 
Virgin,  we  found  the  entire  column  at  a  halt. 
The  section  of  red  socialists  in  front  of  the 
shrine  suddenly  struck  up  a  hymn,  and  every 
one  in  the  crowd  immediately  joined — soldiers. 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  177 

marcliers  and  spectators,  all  standing  barehead- 
ed in  the  chilly  breeze.  It  was  really  rather 
touching  and  impressive. 

An  interesting  group  in  the  procession  was 
made  up  of  Sarts  from  Turkestan.  Early  in 
the  war  there  was  an  uprising  of  Sarts,  Kir- 
ghises  and  Turcomen  in  Central  Asia,  which 
was  bloodily  put  down,  and  the  government 
seized  great  squads  of  these  people  and  sent 
them  as  prisoners  to  various  Eussian  cities. 
There  they  were  not  kept  in  confinement  but 
were  put  to  cleaning  streets,  etc.  When  the 
revolution  came,  the  Sarts  in  Moscow  revolted, 
quit  work  and  marched  through  the  city  cheer- 
ing. They  were  greeted  with  loud  roars  of 
laughter  everywhere  and  are  now  great  favor- 
ites. 

In  front  of  the  National  Hotel,  there  detached 
itself  from  the  procession  a  much-appreciated 
unit.  It  consisted  of  a  gaudy  circus  troupe 
escorting  a  camel  and  an  elephant,  both  heavily 
placarded  with  the  usual  revolutionary  legends. 
Behind  these  came  a  horse-drawn  vehicle  bear- 
ing aloft  a  black  coffin  marked  "The  Old  Or- 
der," on  top  of  which  perched  and  grimaced  a 
repulsive  little  dwarf  labelled  '^Protopopoff." 
Half  the  street-boy  contingent  left  the  line  of 


178  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

march  to  escort  this  attraction  down  the  Mokh- 
avaya. 

The  city  authorities  and  the  sociahst  com- 
mittees have  ordered  the  soldiers  to  resume  the 
saluting  of  their  officers.  I  saw  many  salutes 
to-day.     This  is  a  good  sign. 

I  went  to  tea  at  the  G s'  and  learned  much 

news  from  my  interesting  hostess  and  her 
friends.  First  I  was  assured  that  conditions 
were  gradually  righting  themselves.  Then  I 
heard  that  the  peasants  and  returned  soldiers 
were  plundering  country  houses, — though  not 
burning  them.  In  Moscow,  the  opening  of  the 
prisons  has  set  at  large  all  the  dangerous  crim- 
inals.   Some  of  them  broke  into  the  house  of 

a  woman  neighbor  of  the  G s  a  few  days 

ago,  terrified  the  owner  into  a  nervous  collapse 
and  made  a  clean  sweep  of  all  valuables.  The 
City  Militia  are  doing  their  best,  but  are  fairly 
helpless.  Householders  are  forming  associa- 
tions for  mutual  protection,  with  telephone  sig- 
nals for  help,  etc. 

The  Moscow  revolution  had  many  dramatic 
qualities.  When  the  city  duma  declared  for 
the  revolution,  the  Governor-General, — who  is 
personally  popular  with  both  troops  and  peo- 
ple,— sent  soldiers  to  arrest  the  whole  city  gov- 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  179 

eminent.  A  young  official  named  Ucliensky  ( !), 
aged  22,  undertook  a  defence  of  the  City  Duma 
Building,  had  two  machine  guns  placed  at  the 
entrance,  organised  a  defending  party  and  then 
mounted  a  horse  and  went  out  to  meet  the  Gov- 
ernor-General's troops.  He  addressed  them  so 
eloquently  that  they  came  over  to  the  revolu- 
tion and  marched  off  to  demand  the  submission 
of  his  Excellency.  The  latter  said  that  his  oath 
to  the  Tsar  as  a  public  official  prevented  his 
acquiescence  in  the  new  order,  but  for  the  sake 
of  public  quiet  he  would  agree  to  remain  in  his 
house  and  do  nothing.  So  he  was  left  alone 
and  when  the  Tsar  had  abdicated  he  turned 
over  everything  pertaining  to  his  office  to  the 
new  authorities. 

There  are  only  4,000,000  socialists  in  all  Eus- 
sia  but  their  organisation  is  very  good  and,  be- 
cause of  their  preponderance  among  the  work- 
ingmen  in  Petrograd  and  here,  they  have  been 
able  to  jump  in,  claim  the  credit  for  the  revo- 
lution and  by  dominating  the  troops  usurp  the 
greater  part  of  the  power.  This  power  cannot 
last.  The  problem  is  to  put  them  back  in  their 
places  without  bloodshed.  Most  of  them  have 
behaved  very  well,  but  there  have  been  extrem- 
ists, as  a  matter  of  course.  Some  of  the  unoffi- 
cial socialist  sheets  have  proposed  the  aboli- 


180  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

tion  of  nobility,  the  free  division  of  the  nobles ' 
land  among  the  peasants,  etc.,  and  have  been 
very  bloodthirsty  in  tone.  The  official  pubUca- 
tions  of  the  socialist  parties  are  moderate  and 
very  helpful  to  the  present  government. 

Kerensky,  the  Minister  of  Justice,  is  the  most 
influential  man  in  Russia  to-day.  The  responsi- 
bilities of  office  have  toned  him  down  and  he 
has  become  very  constructive.  He  works  des- 
perately hard.  In  the  middle  of  the  last  week 
he  found  time  somehow  to  come  down  here  and 
direct  the  Moscow  revolution,  but  after  he  had 
addressed  a  half-dozen  crowds  on  the  necessity 
of  a  victorious  war  and  the  exile  of  the  Roman- 
offs, he  fainted  from  sheer  fatigue.  He  pro- 
posed recently  that  he  should  personally  con- 
duct the  Tsar  and  his  family  to  England,  but 
in  this  he  was  overruled  by  the  socialists,  as 
he  has  been  in  several  other  propositions.  The 
masses  are  afraid  of  a  counter-revolution  if 
they  let  the  Romanoffs  out  of  their  power.  Ker- 
ensky is  a  great  egotist  and  talks  much  about 
I-did-this  and  I-did-that ;  he  addressed  the  Fac- 
ulty of  Laws  while  he  was  here  and  quite  dis- 
gusted the  lawyers  by  his  self-glorification. 
Still,  he  needs  infinite  confidence  to  carry  out 
the  role  that  has  been  thrust  upon  him. 

The  conversation  was  led  to  the  probable 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  181 

trial  of  the  Tsar.  We  talked  at  great  length 
of  the  French  Revolution, — a  favorite  topic 
nowadays, — and  one  or  other  of  us  pointed  out 
the  following  features  of  similarity  to  the  pres- 
ent uprising ;  the  weakness  of  the  monarch,  the 
imperiousness  of  his  consort,  the  misery  of  the 
people,  the  dissolution  of  the  popular  represen- 
tative body  and  its  refusal  to  disband,  and  the 
moderation  of  the  first  popular  leaders  and  of 
their  programme.  But  the  irritants  of  the 
French  situation:  the  emigres,  the  invading 
armies  of  restoration,  the  weak  trickiness  of 
the  king, — all  causing  panic  among  the  peo- 
ple,— do  not  exist  here. 

Mme.  G says  that  the  peasants  are  totally 

disillusioned  about  the  sanctity  of  the  Tsar, 
and  that  a  peasant  uprising  in  favor  of  a  mon- 
archy is  not  likely. 

The  Workmen's  Deputies  have  ordered  that 
the  guarding  of  the  Tsarina  be  entrusted  to 
them  and  have  forced  the  ministry  to  acquiesce. 
These  overrulings  of  the  newly-established 
government  by  the  socialists  are  demoralizing; 
fortunately  they  do  not  happen  often.  The  gov- 
ernment is  wisely  very  philosophical  and  long- 
suffering. 

On  the  other  hand,  one  can  easily  understand 
the  position  of  the  socialists.     They  want  to 


182  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

accomplish  through  their  own  power  all  they 
have  dreamed  of  for  years,  and  they  must  play 
safe  against  reaction  even  if  they  have  to  go  to 
extremes.  So  far  the  temper  of  the  revolution 
has  not  fostered  extreme  measures,  but  edu- 
cated Russians  are  preparing  themselves  for 
any  cataclysm. 

Some  one  spoke  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael 
as  a  decidedly  weak  man.  He  is  married  mor- 
ganatically  to  the  daughter  of  a  Moscow  law- 
yer,— a  woman  whom  the  company  all  knew  and 
characterised  as  very  imperious  and  shallow, — 
and  they  have  one  son. 

Guchkoff  has  a  tremendous  position  in  Mos- 
cow, but  they  seem  to  think  that  he  is  gradu- 
ally losing  his  popularity  in  the  capital.  Still, 
he  made  all  Russia  laugh  by  proposing  in  a 
speech  recently  that  a  monument  should  be 
erected  to  Protopopoff,  as  the  real  hero  of  the 
revolution  and  the  man  who  made  it  possible. 

As  I  walked  home,  I  found  large  street-meet- 
ings in  session  at  the  Lubyanka  Square  and  in 
front  of  the  Great  Theatre.  I  could  not  under- 
stand much  of  the  oratory,  but  most  of  it 
seemed  thoughtful  and  unhysterical. 

Monday,  March  26.  A  long,  quiet  day  at  the 
office,  almost  finishing  my  work.  The  only  ex- 
citement was  the  rumor  of  a  great  Russian  ad- 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  183 

vance  at  Minsk, — ^news  which  none  of  the  even- 
ing papers  confirmed. 

Tuesday^  March  27.  The  soldiers  were  to- 
day ordered  by  the  extremist  organisation  not 
to  salute  their  officers,  but  they  disregarded  the 
order. 

After  lunch  I  went  out  with  Mrs.  S to 

shop  for  souvenirs.  In  front  of  the  Trading 
Row  on  the  Eed  Square  we  saw  one  of  the  usual 
*' bread-lines,"  but,  strangely  enough,  it  ended 
at  the  door  of  a  linen  shop.  Mrs.  S.  ex- 
plained that  this  shop  was  supposed  to  sell  ex- 
tra good  cloth  at  especially  low  prices;  many 
other  dry  goods  stores  in  the  same  building  were 
almost  empty,  but  the  Russian  women  preferred 
to  wait  for  hours  in  front  of  this  one  in  order 
to  save  a  few  kopecks. 

In  the  evening,  I  went  to  a  party  at  Vice-Con- 
sul MacGowan's.  He  lives  in  a  building  belong- 
ing to  Nikolas  II  and  in  its  basements  are  the 
great  cellars  for  the  Tsar's  Crimean  wines. 
The  city  government  sent  a  guard  for  this  build- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  revolution,  but  the  Mac- 
Gowans  trembled  lest  guard  plus  wine  might 
be  worse  than  no  guard  at  all. 

Wednesday,  March  28.  The  snow  is  melting 
fast  and  drips  from  all  the  eaves  like  rain,  and 
the  streets  are  a  sea  of  slush.    There  has  been 


184  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

a  scarcity  of  men  to  clear  snow  since  the  revo- 
lution and  the  thaw  is  causing  the  worst  con- 
dition Moscow  has  seen  for  years.  It  has  been 
the  coldest,  most  snowy  winter  in  the  memory 
of  man. 

This  morning  Mrs.  S ,  Fell  and  I  went 

again  to  the  antique  shops.  We  saw  many  love- 
ly things,  but  all  of  them  unbelievably  dear. 

Mrs.  S complained  of  the  lack  of  freedom 

of  Free  Russia.  No  paper  dares  print  any- 
thing against  the  present  order.  There  are  no 
courts,  no  police,  no  justice.  Recently  the 
chauffeur  of  one  of  her  friends  stole  a  full  set 
of  tires  and  sold  them.  He  was  kno^vn  to  be  a 
high-up  revolutionist,  so  his  master  did  not  try 
to  have  him  arrested  but  paid  his  wages  and 
dismissed  him.  He  became  abusive,  announced 
himself  as  the  revolutionary  head  of  the  dis- 
trict, and  threatened  to  cut  his  employer's 
throat.    Now  the  family  is  living  in  deadly  fear. 

It  will  be  months  before  conditions  are  nor- 
mal and  perhaps  more  blood  must  be  shed. 
When  one  considers  the  character  of  the  tyr- 
anny that  was  overthro^vn  and  the  newness  of 
popular  freedom,  it  is  a  wonder  that  conditions 
are  not  worse. 

After  luncheon.  Fell  and  I  went  over  to  the 
Tretyakoff  Museum  to  see  the  pictures.    The 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  185 

collection  includes  some  exquisite  landscapes, 
some  vivid  Cossack  pictures,  and  the  famous 
Vereshchagins,  which  are  a  delight  to  the  eye. 

Four  of  us  heard  Carmen  at  the  Zimina  The- 
atre this  evening.  The  cast  was  not  notewor- 
thy, but  the  singing  was  as  good  as  I've  heard 
in  that  opera.  The  scenery  was  most  interest- 
ing, and  the  details  very  clever.  The  Eussians 
seem  to  have  a  great  gift  along  these  lines. 

Thursday,  March  29.    Called  on  A of  the 

Zemstvo  Union.  He  tells  me  that  the  choice  of 
Prince  Lvoff  as  premier  is  regarded  as  a 
great  tribute  to  the  Union ;  that  the  government 
will  now  take  over  the  tremendous  task  whicli 
was  forced  on  the  voluntary  organisations  by 
the  incapacity  of  the  bureaucracy  and  that  their 
work  will  constantly  diminish.  He  has  heard 
that  conditions  at  the  front  are  better  and  that 
the  soldiers  who  left  without  permission  are 
coming  back  in  large  numbers.  The  great  prob- 
lem is  that  of  ammunition;  the  workmen  in 
munition  factories  are  very  independent  and 
refuse  to  work  steadily  or  long,  the  output  is 
far  below  normal,  and  the  armies  are  under- 
supplied.  He  thinks  that  the  Germans  will 
make  a  big  advance  and  probably  take  Riga  in 
the  spring  unless  the  labor  situation  improves, 


186  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

"but,"  he  adds,  "we  can  stop  them  before  they 
get  to  Petrograd." 

I  spoke  of  the  great  advantage  to  Russia  in 
having  a  full  organisation  of  local  self-govern- 
ments even  if  they  had  never  had  power.  He 
said  that  of  course  the  Zemstvos  would  be  much 
changed  by  the  widening  of  the  electoral  fran- 
chise, but  that  the  present  leaders  hoped  to  pre- 
serve a  good  part  of  their  efficiency.  He  point- 
ed out  that  the  tendency  would  probably  be  to 
re-elect  the  representatives  who  had  made  good 
records  in  war  relief  work. 

Mr.  A urged  me  to  work  for  a  better  un- 
derstanding of  Russia  in  America.  Especially 
is  it  necessary  that  American  Socialists  exhort 
their  Russian  brothers  to  be  moderate,  lest 
their  rashness  throw  the  great  victory  into  the 
lap  of  the  hated  German  Imperialism. 

In  the  evening  I  started  for  Petrograd.  We 
rode  to  the  station  in  a  wheeled  vehicle.  The 
sleighs  have  been  running  over  bare  cobbles  all 
week,  and  I  have  seen  more  and  more  truck- 
sledges  hopelessly  stuck  each  day ;  but  it  is  still 
pretty  rough  going  for  wheels. 

Friday,  March  30.  Arrived  in  Petrograd  at 
noon.  It  is  colder  here,  there  is  little  sign  of 
melting  and  sleighs  are  still  to  be  seen  every- 
where. 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  187 

Saturday,  March  31.  Lunched  with  the 
W s.  They  say  that  the  American  recogni- 
tion, in  its  priority  and  its  manner,  has  made 
the  best  possible  impression  on  the  new  gov- 
ernment, which  now  considers  the  United  States 
its  model  and  its  best  friend.  The  Ambassador 
is  being  consulted  on  all  sorts  of  questions,  and 
is  undoubtedly  doing  splendid  service  to  Rus- 
sia by  his  level-headed  advice. 

The  W s  say  the  censorship  on  all  incom- 
ing mail  has  been  discontinued. 

Sunday,  April  1.  Graham  Taylor  came  in 
just  after  one  o'clock.  We  started  for  a  walk 
and  at  the  Liteiny  ran  into  a  procession  of  suf- 
fragettes, who  were  marching  to  the  Duma  car- 
rying a  great  banner,  "Without  the  Participa- 
tion of  Women  the  Electoral  Right  will  not  be 
'Universal.'  "  The  government  is  on  record 
for  universal  suffrage,  but  the  women  are 
afraid  that  they  may  be  forgotten. 

Only  a  couple  of  blocks  behind  came  a  band 
followed  by  a  long  column  of  troops.  This 
proved  to  be  the  whole  Petrograd  garrison  on 
parade.  All  the  officers  from  generals  down 
were  in  their  proper  places.  Behind  the  first 
three  regiments  rode  a  stunning  group  of  staff 
officers,  and  in  their  midst  General  Komiloff, 
the  Military  Governor  of  Petrograd  and  the 


188  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

hero  of  the  arrest  of  the  Tsarina.  Groups  of 
soldiers  going  upstream  to  the  starting-point 
kept  coming  to  attention  on  the  sidewalks  and 
saluting  him,  and  he  always  returned  their  sa- 
lutes most  genially.  As  far  as  we  could  see,  in 
fact,  the  relations  between  officers  and  men 
were  everywhere  cordial  and  the  discipline  was 
perfect.  There  were  no  flags  except  red  ones 
and  all  of  these  had  devices.  There  were  the 
old  favorites  ''Land  and  the  Will  of  the  Peo- 
ple" and  "Welcome  Constituent  Assembly, 
Welcome  Democratic  Eepublic, ' '  but  best  of  all 
there  were  hundreds  representing  a  new  spirit. 
One  of  the  most  frequent  was  ' '  Without  Victory 
there  is  no  Liberty";  then  others  such  as  "Vic- 
tory over  Wilhelm  and  then  a  free  Russia," 
"Freedom  through  harmony  between  officers 
and  men,"  "We  must  work  with  our  officers," 
"First  beat  German  militarism,  then  a  Demo- 
cratic Republic."  We  were  delighted.  This 
spirit  in  the  Petrograd  garrison  means  the  so- 
lution of  the  greatest  problem  of  all.  If  these 
soldiers  will  obey,  there  will  be  order  in  the 
city  and  an  end  of  the  spirit  of  superciliousness 
on  the  part  of  the  workingmen,  which  is  bol- 
stered up  by  the  feeling  that  they,  instead  of 
the  officers,  control  the  soldiers.    The  reiterated 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  189 

sentiments  in  favor  of  the  war  are  reassuring, 
too. 

The  parade  itself  was  most  impressive.  The 
equipment  of  the  soldiers  appeared  complete, 
and  their  organisation  faultless.  They  were 
mostly  men  of  fine  physique,  with  only  a  small 
proportion  of  boys  and  of  older  men.  We 
watched  for  an  hour  but  they  were  still  coming, 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  and  on  the  other 
side  of  the  street  companies  of  infantry,  troops 
of  Cossacks,  armored  cars,  etc.,  were  constant- 
ly moving  toward  the  rallying  point. 

After  luncheon  Graham  and  I  found  the 
Sergievskaya  full  of  troops.  Up  toward  the 
Tauride  Gardens  we  saw  a  squadron  of  lancers 
formed  in  hollow  square;  and  led  by  curiosity 
we  pushed  through  the  crowd  and,  forcing  our 
way  between  the  horses,  were  able  to  join  the 
foot-soldiers  and  civilians  who  were  gathered 
around  an  automobile  inside  the  square.  In 
the  motor  stood  Rodzianko,  President  of  the 
Duma,  making  a  speech.  When  he  ended,  the 
wildest  enthusiasm  prevailed.  The  soldiers 
threw  their  hats  in  the  air  and  cheered  until 
the  horses  of  the  lancers  reared  and  pranced. 
His  motor  then  moved  a  half  block  further,  to 
a  point  where   other  foot-soldiers  waited  in 


190  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

ranks.  As  soon  as  it  stopped,  they  surged  in 
around  it  with  great  eagerness. 

We  elbowed  our  way  through  the  crowd,  cal- 
culated the  distance  which  the  motor  would  go 
on  its  next  dash  and  stationed  ourselves  accord- 
ingly. We  guessed  accurately,  for  the  auto 
halted  exactly  opposite  us  and  we  soon  found 
ourselves  hennned  in  by  a  thicket  of  bayonets, 
not  ten  yards  from  the  orator  himself.  The 
great  man's  address  was  clear  and  direct,  and 
we  caught  the  words,  "Victory,"  ''Liberty," 
** Order,"  and  "Russia"  over  and  over  again. 
His  gestures  were  mostly  like  a  blacksmith's 
hammer  but  once  he  stopped  and  pointed  accus- 
ingly straight  at  us,  so  that  we  almost  cried  out 
"Amerikantsi!"  in  self-defense.  The  simple 
soldiers  around  us  were  spell-bound. 

At  tea,  Mrs.  W told  me  that  she  had 

lunched  with  some  British  oflficers  who  had  seen 
the  parade  and  who  admitted  that  for  the  first 
time  they  were  beginning  to  feel  optimistic 
about  the  results  of  the  revolution. 

We  have  heard  that  at  Kronstadt  the  sailors 
revolted  with  much  bloodshed,  killing  170  offi- 
cers, including  a  very  efficient  and  popular  ad- 
miral who  had  been  put  in  command  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  British.  The  sailors  seem  to  be 
responsible  for  the  few  excesses  of  the  revolu- 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  191 

tion.  In  Finland  and  at  Sevastopol  they  tor- 
tured and  killed  officers. 

Monday,  April  2.  I  lunched  at  the  Myedvyed 
with  Bailey  and  Taylor.  The  latter  told  me 
that  he  travelled  into  Central  Russia  the  week 
before  the  revolution  with  a  very  intelligent 
and  well-informed  business  man  who  was  man- 
aging some  oil  properties  in  Turkestan.  This 
man  said  to  him:  ''We  are  going  to  see  big 
things.  I  will  concede  the  Romanoff  dynasty 
a  month  but  I  do  not  see  how  it  can  last  longer. 
Things  are  rotten  beyond  repair  and  the  throne 
is  tottering." 

At  Orenburg  the  revolution  was  entirely 
bloodless.  The  news  of  the  Petrograd  revolt 
dribbled  in  and  no  one  believed  it  at  first.  When 
the  whole  story  was  known,  there  was  a  unani- 
mous celebration  led  by  the  governor  of  the 
province. 

I  heard  to-day  the  details  of  the  wrecking  of 
the  Astoria  wine-cellars;  a  friend  of  mine  had 
the  story  from  the  two  British  officers  who  were 
the  heroes  of  the  occasion.  They  lived  in  the 
hotel  and  when  they  heard  that  the  crowd  was 
approaching  to  wreck  it,  they  immediately 
thought  of  its  famous  cellars  and  of  the  terrible 
consequences  to  be  expected  if  the  mob  got  at 
their  contents.    So  they  rushed  downstairs  and 


192  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

while  one  of  them  who  talked  Russian  haran- 
gued the  astonished  wreckers,  the  other 
smashed  bottles  until  he  was  knee-deep  in  wine. 
Even  then  many  people  carried  out  bottles  but 
only  to  have  them  snatched  away  and  broken 
by  the  more  level-headed  of  the  wrecking-party. 
This  latter  action  is  the  finest  tribute  I  have  yet 
heard  to  the  common  sense  of  a  Russian  crowd. 

Tuesday,  April  3.  I  depart  this  evening  for 
Siberia,  Japan  and  America. 

Had  an  appointment  this  morning  with  the 
Assistant  Minister  of  Trade  and  Industry  at 
the  Ministry  on  the  Vassili  Ostroff,  and  found 
great  difficulty  in  getting  there.  The  layer  of 
ice  on  the  streets  is  breaking  up  fast  and  con- 
ditions are  indescribably  difficult  for  horse-ve- 
hicles. Since  the  revolution  the  drivers  of  fiacres 
are  all  free  men  and  will  not  go  anywhere 
their  sweet  fancy  doesn't  lead  them,  no  matter 
how  much  pay  one  offers.  Their  charges  are 
arbitrary  and  terrific.  I  had  a  Petrograd  busi- 
ness man  for  interpreter  but  we  found  no 
driver  who  chanced  to  harbor  a  desire  to  go 
to  the  Vassili  Ostroff,  so  we  walked  a  great 
part  of  the  way. 

My  interview  with  the  Assistant  Minister 
was  purely  technical,  but  after  it  I  asked  him, 
as  a  matter  of  curiosity,  whether  the  soldiers 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  193 

knew  of  the  adjournment  of  the  Duma  when 
they  revolted  on  March  12.  He  said  that  they 
did, — that  they  revolted  to  protect  the  Duma. 
My  own  opinion  is  that  the  later  regiments 
probably  knew,  but  that  the  Volynians  and  the 
Preobrajensky  revolted  because  they  were  un- 
willing to  fire  on  the  people. 

I  walked  home,  noticing  as  I  passed  the  Peo- 
ple's House  of  the  Emperor  Nikolas  II,  that 
the  name  of  the  Tsar  had  been  removed  from 
its  fagade.  I  crossed  the  Neva  on  the  ice.  On 
the  Quay  I  saw  companies  of  soldiers  with  picks 
and  shovels  going  out  to  clean  the  streets. 

After  luncheon,  I  went  over  to  say  good-bye 
to  Mrs.  W .  The  wife  of  the  Japanese  am- 
bassador was  there,  a  very  attractive  woman 
who  speaks  English  beautifully.  She  told  us 
that  when  the  Arsenal  was  taken  on  Monday 
morning  of  the  Revolution,  a  Japanese  mer- 
chant was  in  the  Artillery  Office  arranging 
about  a  contract,  and  that  in  the  miscellaneous 
shooting  he  was  killed.  A  fellow  countryman 
who  was  with  him  brought  the  news  to  their 
Embassy,  almost  simultaneously  with  the  ar- 
rival of  a  telegram  to  the  effect  that  a  train 
bringing  one  of  their  official  commission  to  Pet- 
rograd  had  been  wrecked  in  Siberia.    They  con- 


194  A  Diary  of  the  Russian  Revolution 

eluded  that  this  was  an  anti-Japanese  uprising 
and  were  much  agitated. 

A  departure  on  a  Eussian  railroad  is  always 
apt  to  be  hectic,  and  one  cannot  be  too  careful 
about  the  baggage  that  must  travel  14,000  miles 
and  pass  through  five  custom-houses  in  one's 
company.  So  I  surrendered  my  last  hour  of 
Petrograd  to  the  interesting  confusion  of  the 
Nikolaieff  Station;  which  no  revolution  can 
make  less  interesting  or  less  confused. 

Easter  Day,  April  8,  1917.  In  Petrograd 
there  is  one  Easter  story  which  the  old  aristoc- 
racy loved  to  tell.  It  had  to  do  with  the  Rus- 
sian custom  of  kissing  the  first  person  one 
greets  after  the  midnight  chimes  have  sounded 
on  Easter  morning.  It  seems  that  just  before 
midnight,  one  Easter  eve,  Nikolas  II  was  walk- 
ing in  his  garden  and  as  the  hour  struck  found 
himself  face  to  face  with  a  sentry.  The  good 
Tsar  unhesitatingly  said  ''Christ  is  risen"  and 
kissed  the  man. 

This  morning,  on  the  lawn  of  a  way-station 
in  middle  Siberia,  we  saw  a  sign-board  with  the 
proclamation  of  the  local  Council  of  Workmen's 
and  Soldiers '  Deputies.  It  read ;  ' '  Spokoistvye 
i  Trud  Garanty  Svobody"— "Quietness  and  In- 
dustry are  the  Guarantees  of  Liberty." 


The  Turn  Toward  Order  195 

In  which  of  the  two,  in  these  simple  words 
of  a  simple  people,  or  in  the  kiss  and  exclama- 
tion of  the  Tsar,  is  the  truer  promise  of  a 
resurrection? 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


aim  X&  1953 

College  Library 

OCT  S  1  1960 


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